CARE home residents are among the high priorities for receiving a coronavirus vaccine, but experts in Wales have admitted that its provision to this vulnerable group of people will be a big challenge.

The approval by medicines regulators in the UK of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, announced earlier today, is a huge step forward in the battle to control and defeat coronavirus - but delivering it in a care home setting is not straightforward.

This vaccine requires storage at an extremely low temperature, and until another that does not come with such a stringent requirement is approved, there are difficulties to overcome.

Wales' Chief Medical Officer Dr Frank Atherton, speaking at the Welsh Government's coronavirus briefing today, could not say when care home residents will receive the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.

He said getting the vaccine to care homes is a "work in progress" and it is "very difficult", with the requirement for storage at such low temperatures, posing logistical challenges across Wales.

At first, he said, it will have to be provided at a limited number of sites.

"We're trying to find ways with this vaccine to provide a more disseminated approach to distribution," he said.

"It's a work in progress. It is very difficult to provide this vaccine to numerous points of care.

"Initially, we will have to deliver the vaccine through small number of sites.

"There are other vaccines in the pipeline which have less stringent temperature controls, which will help.

"I can't give an exact date or timeframe, but we are working through it as quickly as we can. Elderly residents in care homes are one of our highest priorities."

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Dr Gill Richardson, co-chair of Wales' Covid-19 vaccine programme board, said: "Care homes and health boards are working together, so when we can safely get vaccines to them, we will.

Dr Richardson was also asked if unpaid carers, who provide 96 per cent of care in community, should be prioritised for the vaccine alongside health and social care workers.

"I completely agree," she said.

"Unpaid carers are extremely important to who they care for, and to the whole of society.

"This is something the JCVI (the UK's Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, which decides who should get priority, and what those priority groups should be) is acutely aware of."

She added that the JCVI will likely make an announcement about carers and their being prioritised, "so they wouldn’t have to wait for their age groups [in the priority list]".