From July to August, the federal government plans to vaccinate over 200,000 people per day, and over 300,000 people per day from August onwards.
Khairy Jamaluddin, the National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme Coordinating Minister, noted that one of the strategies to achieve the goal was to open more vaccination centres around the country.
“This is one of the reasons why I went to the various states, including Johor, to assure the opening of more large-scale vaccination centres in order to boost the number of people being vaccinated accordingly.
“If we can do this, I am optimistic we will be able to reach our aim of vaccinating 80% of the population by October,” he said after chairing the COVID-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF) meeting with Johor Menteri Besar Datuk Hasni Mohammad at Bangunan Dato’ Jaafar in Johor on 8th of June.
Along with the addition of large-scale vaccination centres, Khairy, who is also the Minister of Science, Technology, and Innovation, said the government is doing its best to ensure adequate manpower through partnerships with the private sector and enlisting the help of medical professionals such as housemen, retired doctors and nurses, as well as medical students.
“Malaysia has finalised the delivery of 25 million Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine doses beginning in July and continuing through August and September. We also have greater clarity on the Sinovac vaccine distribution and we’re now working out the AstraZeneca vaccine delivery timetable as there are some changes,” he said.
In response to the day’s CITF meeting, Khairy announced that the state’s first industry vaccination centre will open on 16th June, specifically for workers at the Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development (Rapid) complex in Pengerang, Kota Tinggi, as well as in Mount Austin, Johor Bahru, by the end of the month.
“We have also received Johor’s proposal to deploy mobile and drive-through PPVs,” he continued. “If the vaccine supply is not affected, we should be able to vaccinate three million Johoreans by the end of October,” he added.
Meanwhile, Hasni said the state government has proposed to the federal government several other locations besides the AstraZeneca vaccination centre at the Persada Johor International Convention Centre (Persada) to be turned into private vaccination centres in order to meet the target of 50,000 vaccination shots per day until October.
He went on to say that this includes establishing private vaccination centres in retail malls or drive-thru centres at theme parks, as well as other private centres in Batu Pahat, Pagoh, and Kluang areas.
Hasni further stated that the state government will not do bulk COVID-19 screening tests, but rather will do targeted screenings in high-risk locations.
Following an increase in COVID-19 cases reported in the district, 20,000 Antigen Rapid Test (RTK-Ag) screening kits will be used for targeted screenings in Johor Bahru, he stated.
He maintained that the RTK-Ag test kits supplied from Singapore through the Sultan Ibrahim Foundation would offer findings in five minutes with 98% accuracy, allowing for early diagnosis of COVID-19 infections in Johor Bahru.
