Momentum builds on vaccine rollout

Phase Two kicks off with 9,916 vaccinated

PETALING JAYA: With more vaccine doses expected to arrive by May, the country kicked off the second phase of the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme that started with the vaccination of 9,916 senior citizens, the disabled and those with comorbidities.

Programme coordinating minister Khairy Jamaluddin said Dewan 2020 hall in Perlis saw the largest group immunised – a total of 924 recipients.

He also said 888 people received the vaccine in 14 public hospitals that had been designated as special centres in seven states.

“They are from four categories: those who have a history of allergies and are able to take the vaccine; immunocompromised patients; those who are at risk of bleeding due to certain diseases or are taking specific medications; and those deemed suitable to be vaccinated such as chronic patients, haemodialysis patients, pregnant women and psychiatric patients,” he said during his weekly press conference with Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba yesterday.

Khairy said Phase Two also saw 30 non-medical vaccination centres opened in Kedah, Melaka, Negri Sembilan, Pahang, Penang, Perlis, Terengganu, Sabah, Sarawak and Labuan.

He said these additional centres consisted of public halls, among other facilities.

“This is to complement the current 600 centres.”

He also noted that 1,438,974 senior citizens aged above 60 had registered for the vaccine, while 136,798 people with disabilities and 2,029,297 persons with comorbidities had signed up.

For Selangor, Khairy said the second phase would only start on April 26 as the state was still completing vaccinations for those under Phase One.

“States such as Selangor are still vaccinating frontliners. We have a little bit of a backlog there. When that is completed, then we can start the second phase,” he added.

Khairy said Phase One of the vaccination was still ongoing with 258,783 frontliners to be vaccinated – the majority of whom are waiting for their second dose.

During the press conference, he highlighted that Malaysia was scheduled to receive 1,038,960 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and 500,000 doses of the Sinovac finished product in May.

He said the total supply of PfizerBioNTech vaccine received in April would be 712,530 doses, while the country also had Sinovac vaccine from Pharmaniaga that would be able to produce up to 2.6 million doses.

The Sinovac doses from Pharmaniaga, he added, was still pending approval from the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency.

So far, the country has received 1,000,350 doses of the PfizerBioNTech vaccine in March.

On criticisms that the country was running behind in its vaccination programme, Khairy clarified that they were not, and was instead keeping to the schedule of the phases as announced earlier.

“Many people have raised questions about the schedule of the programme, and I want to say we are following it. Phase Two is for senior citizens, people with comorbidities and people with disabilities.

“After Phase Two is done, we will start with Phase Three when the supply is enough.

“I understand people’s anxiety. But as I have said before, after we register, we have to wait for our turn (in our respective phases),” he said.

Khairy had previously been reported as saying that one of the main reasons why the present supply of the vaccines remained slow here was because rich nations had been hoarding vaccines, adding that they had cornered the vaccine market and bought enough to vaccinate their citizens three to five times over.

According to the Duke Global Health Innovation Centre, high-income countries had procured vaccine supplies that would secure more than enough doses to cover their residents.

Canada has secured 8.67 doses per inhabitant, while Britain has secured 7.29 doses per inhabitant.

Respectively, New Zealand and Australia secured 6.57 doses and 5.71 doses per inhabitant.

As the roll-out of the programme gets underway, Khairy said teachers would be given the same priority as other eligible vaccine recipients during this phase but it would be subject to availability.

He said the Covid-19 Vaccine Supply Access Guarantee Special Committee had determined that teachers would be given the same priority as the elderly, those with comorbidities and persons with disabilities in the second phase.

“This applies to about 500,000 teachers in the public and private sectors nationwide,” he said.

He noted that there were 54,537 chronically ill teachers who had been listed in Phase One, and about 11,000 of whom had received at least one dose.

Khairy said the decision was made after evaluating the risk of exposure and infection in schools, which had now opened.

Separately, he said vaccines would be given to athletes who were representing Malaysia in international competitions.

“This is under the category of national significance. We’ve seen that this is the case in countries such as New Zealand that allowed their athletes who are competing in the Olympics to get early jabs.

“Malaysia will also be taking the same approach,” he said, adding that some athletes in the country had already been vaccinated as they were competing in the qualifying rounds.