Wee: We’ll ensure vaccines reach safely

PETALING JAYA: The Transport Ministry will provide full cooperation and facilities in ensuring that the supply of vaccines reaches its destination safely and on time with compliance to current policies as well as technical safety standards.

Transport Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong said he was pleased that the ministry had been entrusted to bring in the first batch of Pfizer vaccines which arrived yesterday.

“I am very pleased when the Transport Ministry, through the national cargo airline MASKargo, was entrusted to help bring in 312,390 doses of Pfizer vaccine to be distributed to the people of Malaysia.

“Our hope is that with the arrival of this first batch of vaccine, it will be the ray of light in ending the national battle against the Covid-19 pandemic,” he said in a Facebook post yesterday.

MASKargo, said Dr Wee, was given the responsibility to manage the entry of the vaccines from Singapore’s Changi Airport to KL International Airport.

“Prior to this, the vaccine was only transported by DHL (including worldwide) under the management of Pfizer itself,” he said, expressing his hope that MASKargo could play a bigger role in transporting important products like vaccines in the future.

The ministry, said Dr Wee, would ensure the vaccine reached its destination with compliance to current policies as well as technical safety standards set by the Civil Aviation Authority, the Road Transport Department and the Marine Department.

He said due to the importance of the transport sector and its services during the movement control order, the government would also consider including 67,573 workers from the sector in the initial list or be given priority in the vaccination programme.

“This will protect the frontliners in the transport sector and ensure that the services are safer and more reliable,” he said.

In a tweet, Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah described the arrival of the vaccine as a historical event “symbolic to all our blood, sweat, tears and sacrifices”.

“It’s a new frontier, different battle and strategy, giving a glimmer of hope to see the light at the end of tunnel,” he said, adding that it would be a collective effort to keep everyone safe.

“Nobody is safe until everyone is safe,” he said.

Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said with the arrival of the vaccine, people needed to get inoculated as soon as possible.

“Vaccines don’t save lives. Vaccinations do. Now that the vaccines have arrived, we need to get them into our arms as quickly as possible. It’s game on,” he said.