Govt to vaccinate over 300000 people a day from August - Free Malaysia Today

ISKANDAR PUTERI: The government plans to vaccinate more than 200,000 individuals daily beginning July, and more than 300,000 individuals daily from August.

National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme coordinating minister Khairy Jamaluddin said the steps to achieve the targeted numbers included opening more vaccination centres (PPVs) throughout the country.

“This is one of the reasons I’m visiting several states, including Johor, to ensure the opening of more large-scale vaccination centres, thus increasing the number of vaccinations among the public.

“If we can do this, I am confident we can achieve our target of vaccinating 80% of the population by October,” he said during a media conference after chairing a Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF) meeting with Johor menteri besar Hasni Mohammad at Bangunan Dato’ Jaafar here today.

Khairy, who is also science, technology and innovation minister, said along with the addition of large-scale vaccination centres, the government was doing its best to ensure adequate manpower through partnerships with the private sector. It is also seeking assistance from medical professionals such as housemen, retired doctors and nurses, as well as medical students.

“Malaysia has finalised the delivery schedule of 25 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines that will be sent in the third quarter of this year, beginning July and throughout August and September.

“We now have more clarity on the delivery schedule of the Sinovac vaccine and are currently working out the delivery schedule of the AstraZeneca vaccine as there are some changes there,” he said.

On the CITF meeting, Khairy said the first industry vaccination centre in the state was expected to open on June 16, specially for workers at the Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development complex in Pengerang, Kota Tinggi, besides that in Mount Austin, Johor Bahru, at the end of this month.

“We have also received Johor’s proposal to deploy mobile and drive-through PPVs. If the vaccine supply is not disrupted, we can complete vaccinating three million Johorians by the end of October,” he added.

Meanwhile, Hasni said the state government had suggested several other locations to be turned into private vaccination centres besides the AstraZeneca vaccination centre at the Persada Johor International Convention Centre to achieve the target of 50,000 daily vaccination shots till October.

This includes setting up private vaccination centres at shopping malls or drive-through centres at theme parks as well as several private centres in Batu Pahat, Pagoh and Kluang districts.

Hasni said the state government would not implement mass Covid-19 screening but would instead conduct targeted screening in high-risk areas.

“A total of 20,000 Antigen Rapid Test (RTK-Ag) screening kits will be used for targeted screenings in Johor Bahru following a rise in Covid-19 cases reported in the district,” he said.

The RTK-Ag screening kits received from Singapore through the Sultan Ibrahim Foundation, he said, would provide results in about five minutes with an accuracy of 98% to help the early detection of infections.