First Moderna doses will be given out in Wales TODAY

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The first doses of the Moderna coronavirus vaccine will be dished out in Wales from today – but England won’t deploy the jab for another fortnight.

The Welsh Government received some 5,000 doses last night after offering jabs to all over-50s and clinically vulnerable, with the Health Secretary Matt Hancock saying he was ‘delighted’ they had hit the key milestone.

But confusion has erupted over the roll-out of the jab – the third to be deployed in Britain, behind Pfizer and AstraZeneca.

Number 10’s vaccine minister Nadhim Zahawi yesterday said Moderna’s shot would only be used from the third week of April.

Nicola Sturgeon, however, revealed barely hours later that the first batch of doses had arrived in Scotland, although she did not say when these would be used.

Wales officially moved on to over-45s in its inoculation drive on Monday, after Northern Ireland also started offering jabs to this age group last week. Scotland and England are still mopping up older adults who have yet to be jabbed. 

Britons will receive 100,000 doses ordered this month, with deliveries expected to ‘significantly increase’ in May and June. The Government has ordered 17million jabs from the US-based company – enough for 8.5million people.

A Whitehall source told The Times hundreds of thousands of Moderna jabs have already arrived in Britain, and plans are being put in place for their distribution. 

It comes as Britain’s medical regulator mulls over whether to suspend the AstraZeneca jab for under-30s, amid concern over very rare blood clots.

Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) member Dr Maggie Wearmouth last night opened the possibility of ‘slowing things down’ until the MHRA was sure the jab was completely safe.

‘The issue is about safety and public confidence,’ she said. ‘We don’t want to cover anything up that we feel that the public should be knowing. We’re not here to blindly follow targets or due dates. We will do what is necessary for the British public.’

Oxford University halted jab trials in children last night, saying it would wait for the MHRA’s ruling on whether they were safe to continue. 

More than 31million adults have now received their first dose, putting the Government on course to meet its target of vaccinating all over-50s by April 15. 

Moderna doses were delivered to Hywel Dda University Health Board yesterday, with the first jabs set to be given at West Wales General Hospital, Carmarthen. 

Wales Health Minister Vaughan Gething pointed to the delivery was ‘another key milestone’ in the fight against Covid. 

‘A third vaccine for use in Wales significantly adds to our defences in the face of Covid and will help to protect our most vulnerable,’ he said.

‘Every vaccine given to someone in Wales is a small victory against the virus and we would encourage everyone to go for their vaccine when invited.’

Britain’s Health Secretary said the achievement was only possible thanks to the UK Government’s successful programme to secure vital vaccine supplies. 

‘The UK government has secured vaccines on behalf of the entire nation and the vaccination programme has shown our country working together at its best,’ Mr Hancock said.

‘Three out of every five people across the whole United Kingdom have received at least one dose, and today we start with the third approved vaccine. Wherever you live, when you get the call, get the jab.’

But there is mounting confusion over the roll-out of Moderna’s jab, after Mr Zahawi yesterday said doses would only be available by April 19. 

His statement came barely hours before Ms Sturgeon said Scotland had received a delivery, although it did not reveal when these jabs would be rolled-out.

It is not clear whether Northern Ireland has received any doses of the Moderna vaccine.

There is mounting concern, however, that Moderna jabs are sitting in warehouses across the country instead of being used to protect Britons and save lives.

NHS England warned in a letter to GPs last month that its vaccine supplies would be ‘significantly constrained’ for four weeks from March 29.

It is thought this referred to reduced deliveries of the AstraZeneca vaccine, after India blocked the delivery of 5million doses.

The Department of Health said Moderna jabs would be rolled out ‘as soon as possible this month’, but did not provide a specific date. 

More than 93 per cent of over-50s in England had received their first dose of a Covid vaccine by March 28, figures show, suggesting health authorities are nearing offering the jab to younger age groups in the nation.  

It comes as a trial of the AstraZeneca vaccine in children was paused while regulators investigate reports of a rare form of blood clot among adults.

The University of Oxford said no safety concerns have arisen from the children’s trial and Sage adviser Professor Calum Semple said the decision to pause had been made out of ‘exceptional caution’, as he urged people to continue accepting Oxford/AstraZeneca jabs.

Assessments are under way into a very rare and specific type of blood clot in the brain, known as cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST), occurring together with low levels of platelets (thrombocytopenia) following vaccination in adults.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) are expected to announce findings of their assessments on Wednesday or Thursday.

The UK’s regulator – the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) – is also investigating reports but has not confirmed when it will present its findings.

Both the MHRA – which said it had identified 30 cases of rare blood clot events out of 18.1 million doses of the jab administered up to and including March 24 – and WHO have said that to date the benefits of the vaccine in preventing coronavirus outweigh any risks.

Dr Wearmouth, a member of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), indicated that ‘perhaps slowing things down’ with the rollout ‘until we’re absolutely certain’ might be wise.

Speaking in a personal capacity, she told the Daily Telegraph: ‘The issue is about safety and public confidence. We don’t want to cover anything up that we feel that the public should be knowing.

‘We’re not here to blindly follow targets or due dates. We will do what is necessary.’

Fellow JCVI member Professor Adam Finn said the situation must be ‘addressed urgently’.

Speaking in a personal capacity, he told BBC Newsnight: ‘It’s clear that everyone is taking these cases enormously seriously, we do need to get to the bottom of this.

‘We are walking a tightrope here between the need for speed but also the need for clarity and scientific certainty about what’s going on and of course the public wants to know, so very important issues that need to be addressed urgently.’

Yesterday the Prime Minister, who has himself had the AstraZeneca vaccine, called on the nation to get their jab during a visit to the Anglo-Swedish plant in Macclesfield.

He said the ‘best thing’ people can do is ‘look at what the MHRA say’, adding: ‘Their advice to people is to keep going out there, get your jab, get your second jab.’

Sage adviser Professor Calum Semple echoed the PM’s clarion call and urged people to continue accepting the AstraZeneca jab.

He told Channel 4 News: ‘This has been done out of exceptional caution and the big story still is that for a middle-aged, slightly overweight man, such as myself, my risk of death is one in 13,000 – the risk of this rare clot, which might not even be associated with the vaccine, is probably one in a million.

‘So I’m still going to say it’s better to get the vaccine than not get the vaccine and we can pause and take time to carefully consider the value for children because they’re not at risk of death from Covid.’

He added: ‘If you’ve been called for the vaccine then you’re in an age group that is very likely to benefit from the vaccine. So the bottom line is if you’ve been called for the vaccine I would urge you to take the vaccine.’

Several European countries have limited the AstraZenca jab to older people or even suspended its use entirely following clotting in a tiny amount of cases.

One of the European drug regulator’s senior officials yesterday claimed there is now a ‘clear’ link between the jab and CVST — a brain blockage that can lead to a stroke.

Marco Cavaleri, head of vaccines at the European Medicines Agency (EMA), said that CVST — a brain blockage that can lead to a stroke — was occurring more often than expected in younger people.

Mr Cavaleri admitted that the body was still baffled about how the jab may trigger the rare complication.

EMA officials are already probing the link between the vaccine and CVST, which is more common in young women. Watchdog bosses are expected to make a formal announcement tomorrow.

Despite his comments, Mr Cavaleri’s agency has repeatedly insisted AstraZeneca’s jab is safe and the benefits outweigh any risks.

Last week it slapped down Germany for suspending its use in under-60s, arguing there was ‘no evidence’ to support age-based restrictions.

But at the same time, the watchdog paved the way for a potential U-turn, warning that the rate of the complication did appear to be slightly higher than expected in vaccinated under-60s.

Experts across the board say the evidence is now ‘shifting’ and that the jab is likely – in extremely rare cases – to cause the brain blockage.

Britain’s medical regulator may also impose a German-style ban of AstraZeneca’s vaccine, it emerged last night.

Sources told Channel 4 it could stop under-30s getting the jab – which is the main one being deployed in Britain.

But Government insiders told the Telegraph that regulators were unlikely to impose any age-based ban.

It came amid reports that thousands of doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine are being wasted in France following a ‘wave of panic’ triggered by its suspension.

And it was also claimed that EU officials are confident they will have enough doses to immunize the majority of their citizens by the end of June. 

Britain is aiming to have offered a first dose to all adults by the end of July.

The World Health Organization still maintains there is ‘no link for the moment’ between the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine and blood clots.

Rogerio Pinto de Sa Gaspar, director of regulation and prequalification at the WHO, told a briefing today: ‘The appraisal that we have for the moment, and this is under consideration by the experts, is that the benefit-risk assessment for the vaccine is still largely positive.’

He added: ‘For the time being there is no evidence that the benefit-risk assessment for the vaccine needs to be changed and we know from the data coming from countries like the UK and others that the benefits are really important in terms of reduction of the mortality of populations that are being vaccinated.’

Scientists insist the benefits of the AstraZeneca vaccine outweigh any risks for elderly people — who are most at risk of hospitalisation or death if they catch the virus.

But they warn that the picture is ‘more complicated’ for young people. 

Experts estimate the risk of dying of Covid for 25 to 44-year-olds is 0.04 per cent – or one in 2,500.

For comparison, the rate of CVST cases seen in Germany — which originally banned the jab for over-60s over the same blood clot fears — is around one in 90,000.

It is not clear how many younger adults will suffer the blood clots naturally — but officials admit the risk is higher in women under the age of 50.

Officials are working round-the-clock to disentangle the statistical risk, analysing the background rate of CVST as well as the reported rate among people given AstraZeneca’s vaccine. 

‘In the next few hours, we will say that there is a connection, but we still have to understand how this happens,’ Mr Cavaleri told Italian newspaper Il Messaggero.

‘Among the vaccinated, there are more cases of cerebral thrombosis… among young people than we would expect.’

Stella Kyriakides, the European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, said the results of the EMA’s  review of the AstraZeneca vaccine were expected Wednesday.