HEALTH minister Vaughan Gething was unable to say whether Wales hit its target to vaccinate 70 per cent of over-80s this weekend.

Last week, Mr Gething said he was “confident” that 70 per cent of the over-80s, as well as 70 per cent of care home residents and staff, would have received their first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine by January 24.

But, speaking at today's Welsh Government press briefing, the health minister said he couldn't say whether the target had been reached due to a lag in the date.

He said: "We do not have all the data back from vaccination centres and GP practices around Wales to see whether we have reached the 70 per cent figure.

"We will know in the next day or two if we reached that figure.

"We do know that more than 70 per cent of care home workers have been vaccinated."

Mr Gething also praised the work of healthcare staff involved in the rollout, saying Wales was making "good progress".

The latest figures show that almost 271,000 have received the first does of their vaccine in Wales, 8.7 per cent of the population.

Though the health minister admitted that the weekend's snowfall had had an impact on the country's vaccination programme.

He said: "A massive amount of work was done last week and across the weekend.

"The number of people vaccinated increased each day as the week progressed.

"I want to thank everyone involved in the programme.

"Your efforts to help protect Wales have been fantastic and you know that we will need you to carry on doing more in the weeks ahead.

"Many people worked through the weekend to vaccinate people and what you are doing for the future of our country is incredible."

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Mr Gething added: "Over the weekend we saw snowfall across Wales and this has had an impact on our vaccine programme.

"Four centres were closed in the Cwm Taf Morgannwg area and one was closed in the Swansea Bay area for safety concerns.

"We also know that a number of GPs postponed clinics to today.

"Some people also decided that they did not want to go out in the snow for their vaccination appointments yesterday.

"Everyone who has had their vaccine appointment postponed will be contacted and offered a new appointment in the first half of this week.

"No vaccine will be wasted. We are vaccinating people as quickly as possible buy peoples safety remains paramount."

From tomorrow, information will be published weekly on the amount of vaccine deemed not suitable for use in Wales.

Figures on the number of vaccines received will also be released on a weekly basis.