Private hospitals, GPs to handle 40,000 vaccinations a day

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Private hospitals and GPs will handle 40,000 vaccinations a day when they begin participating in the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme next month, Khairy Jamaluddin said today.

At a press conference following his visit to the Malaysia International Trade and Exhibition Centre (Mitec) vaccination centre, the vaccine coordinating minister said this will help the country reach its target of 150,000 jabs a day by the end of June.

“We achieved 107,000 vaccinations on Friday, and we will be able to reach 150,000 a day very soon with the arrival of increasing supplies.

Bernama

“I also want to emphasise that the 150,000 number is an average, not just a peak once in a while.”

He said that while the private sector was not needed earlier because of insufficient supplies, the imminent arrival of additional doses of the Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Sinovac had warranted their inclusion.

According to Khairy, there are 2,500 GPs who have signed up to participate and are currently undergoing training.

In addition, he said he would be working closely with Selangor menteri besar Amirudin Shari given the state’s high number of cases, with efforts going towards ramping up vaccinations across the state.

This will include the opening of five new vaccination centres in the Klang Valley, at the Mines International Exhibition & Convention Centre, Universiti Teknologi MARA and the Setia City Convention Centre in Selangor, as well as the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre and Stadium Negara in Kuala Lumpur.

He said there will also be a new feature in MySejahtera for people who have been given the wrong dates to cancel or change their appointments.

This comes after a number of complaints on social media indicating they had been given a different date from the one they selected when registering for the AstraZeneca vaccine, or had their date moved unexpectedly.

“The government will pay the clinics and private hospitals. They only need to administer the vaccines,” Khairy said, adding that the government was considering ramping its vaccination drive introducing drive-through centres.

“Following the successful drive-through pilot programme at USM Kubang Kerian in Kota Baru, other states cam implement it,” he said.

He also said a nationwide rollout still needed some fine-tuning.

“On May 21, Health Minister Dr Adham Baba signed a deal for the delivery of 12.8 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine.

“This means we have 44.8 million doses of Pfizer, which is enough to cover 70% of the population,” added Khairy.