KUALA LUMPUR, May 30 — The government is targeting to designate 1,000 general practitioners (GP) clinics and private hospitals as vaccination centres (PPVs), to start administering vaccines before June 30.
National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme Coordinating Minister, Khairy Jamaluddin, said this would enable these PPVs to administer the vaccine, with a target of about 40,000 doses a day subject to vaccine supply.
“This is our target for private clinics (and hospitals), subject to vaccine supply. Previously, there was no need for private clinics and hospitals to be involved with the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme because the supply of vaccines was not plentiful.
“After this, when the supply of vaccines has increased, we want to facilitate private clinics and hospitals to administer vaccines through our programme for free,” he said after visiting the PPV at the Malaysia International Trade and Exhibition Centre (Mitec) today.
Khairy said that, to date, a total of 1,800 out of 2,500 registered GPs had undergone training with ProtectHealth Corporation Sdn Bhd (ProtectHealth), before opening their respective PPVs.
On the issue of prospective pilgrims who have been vaccinated with the Sinovac vaccine, he said that the government would discuss with the Saudi Arabian government, to give flexibility to the group.
This is because Saudi Arabia currently only approves those administered with the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines to enter the country.
He said that prospective pilgrims (under Tabung Haji) who have yet to be inoculated will be administered with the Pfizer vaccine.
“I have also sought advice from our expert committee, if someone is injected with Sinovac can this person be injected again with Pfizer. I have yet to get an answer,” he said.
In the meantime, Khairy also announced that a new feature in the MySejahtera application will be added, to allow users who receive the wrong date for the AstraZeneca vaccine appointment to cancel or change to a new date.
— Bernama
