SEPANG – Malaysia received its first batch of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine today, with the view of implementing the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme from Wednesday onwards.
Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin announced that the programme will be executed earlier than the scheduled date of February 26, following Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s call to accelerate the inoculation process following the successful implementation of the delivery and storage plan today.
“The prime minister and Health Director-General Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah will be the first individuals to receive the vaccine on Wednesday,” he told a press conference following the vaccine delivery at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) here today.
Khairy said that both men will get the jabs at the Putrajaya Health Clinic after the weekly cabinet meeting.
The first batch of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, comprising 312,390 doses, arrived safely at the KLIA’s Advanced Cargo Centre (ACC) at 9.57am on board Malaysia Airlines Flight MH604, operated by MAB Kargo Sdn Bhd (MASKargo).
They were flown in on an Airbus 330-300 from Singapore’s Changi Airport following its initial departure from Puurs, Belgium, after transiting at Leipzig Halle Airport, Germany.
Several ministers present during the cargo’s arrival included Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba and Khairy, who is also the coordinating minister for the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme.
Also present were Transport Minister Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong and Health Director-General Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.
At present, Khairy said, the shipment of vaccines will be distributed at undisclosed sites throughout Peninsular Malaysia, with plans to ship the vaccines to Sabah and Sarawak currently being arranged.
“Part of the vaccine shipment is being transported to Penang and is expected to reach there by 6pm, while a separate shipment is arriving in Johor from Singapore by 2pm.
“This is because the flight that had earlier transited in Singapore delivered some of the vaccines shipment, which allows it to be transported to Johor faster,” he said.
The first batch of the vaccine will be transported to 16 vaccination storage sites set up in the peninsula.
“In total, including Sabah and Sarawak, there will be 54 vaccination storage sites set up nationwide as the vaccination phases are being executed,” he said.
Following today’s delivery, Malaysia expects the delivery of 1,000,350 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine by March 29, with shipments containing roughly a similar number of doses as received today arriving weekly from now on.
In total, the government has ordered 32 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
Additionally, Khairy said teachers identified as high-risk will be considered for early vaccination ahead of schools reopening on March 8.
“The request from the teaching sector is reasonable now that schools will be reopened in March.
“However, due to the supply, we have our constraints. For now, we only have one million doses for the first phase and we have already registered 500,000 frontliners from the health and non-health sectors,” he said.
Having discussed the matter with Dr Noor Hisham earlier today, Khairy said the request will be brought up next week while the Education Ministry will list down the priority from the list of teachers submitted to them.
The immunisation programme, which will be executed in three phases, will see frontliners get inoculated from February 24 onwards until April as part of the first phase.
This will be followed by the second phase, which is from April to August, targeting high-risk groups, namely senior citizens aged 60 years and above, those susceptible to life-threatening diseases and persons with disabilities.
The third phase, which is from May until February next year, is for those aged 18 and above. – The Vibes, February 21, 2021
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