Number of people in Wales incorrectly sent shielding letters unknown

Wales' Health Minister Vaughan Gething has said it is impossible to currently say how many people have incorrectly been sent letters telling them to shield.

It comes as a number of GP surgeries told ITV Wales they had received calls from concerned patients who don't believe they should be in that category.

The Welsh Government was previously forced to apologise after thousands of letters warning people with underlying health conditions to stay at home were sent to the wrong addresses.

When asked at the Welsh Government's daily press conference whether he knew how many people had been sent a letter incorrectly, Mr Gething said it was an "impossible question for me to give you an answer to".

The Health Minister went on to say, "we don't think there's a system wide failure and there are large categories of people who got the wrong letter."

He added, "we did anticipate that when sending out collectively about 121,000 letters, that it's possible some may have gone to the wrong person."

The Welsh Government defines “shielding” as protecting those people who are extremely vulnerable to the serious complications of coronavirus because they have a particular existing health condition.

It involves staying at home and reducing contact with other people as far as possible to reduce the risk of being exposed to coronavirus.

A full list of those classed as "extremely vulnerable" can be found on the Welsh Government's website.