KOTA TINGGI – A total of 2,082 companies with 301,050 workers have registered for vaccination under the Public-Private Partnership Covid-19 Industry Immunisation Programme (Pikas) as of Wednesday.
International Trade and Industry (Miti) Minister, Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali said, from the total, 255 companies involving 14,357 workers were industry players in Johor.
“I hope this programme will proceed smoothly and can be completed on schedule.
“I was given the assurance by the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme’s coordinating minister who is also Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin and Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba that the supply of vaccines will be stepped up in July and August.
“This is to meet the needs of the economic sector because the implementation of Pikas today is only for the manufacturing and factory sectors.
“After this, we will proceed with the plantation and construction sectors as well as other sectors,” he told a media conference after visiting the vaccination centre at the Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development project in Pengerang here today.
Meanwhile, he said the government suggested that vaccination centres under Pikas could also administer doses to nearby communities in an effort to speed up achieving herd immunity.
“This is because the industrial vaccination centres are already in existence… they (the private sector) are also prepared to extend this service to the families of their workers and also the communities living near the vaccination centre,” he said, adding that the process would be provided for free.
In another development, Mohamed Azmin said three more industrial vaccination centres were being planned in Penang soon to help speed up the vaccination of industrial workers in the state.
“CITF (the Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force) and the Miti teams will go down to the field to look at the facilities. If they fulfill the conditions set by the Health Ministry (MoH), the three additional centres will be approved in the next one to two days,” he said.
For the record, three onsite and six common use vaccination centres have been set up under Pikas to date.
Pikas was launched on June 12 as a response to the proposal of businesses to help speed up vaccination, specifically among workers. – Bernama, June 18, 2021
