Khairy Jamaluddin visits the Mitec Covid-19 vaccine distribution centre in Kuala Lumpur June 26, 2021. ― Picture by Firdaus Latif
KUALA LUMPUR, June 26 — Minister in charge of the National Covid-19 Immunisation programme (PICK) Khairy Jamaluddin today clarified that Selangor did not have an issue with vaccine supply but faced problems related to vaccination capacity.
He said Selangor should have the capacity to vaccinate more than 100,000 individuals per day but have managed to only do 20,000 to 50,000 vaccination per day so far.
“We have increased distribution of vaccine supply to Selangor, Selangor had issues with the capacity in which they vaccinated only 20,000 a day.
“We had worked with the Selangor state government and others to increase the capacity, now we could get 50,000 a day.
“But Selangor needs to vaccinate more than 100,000 a day,” he said in a press conference at the Malaysia International Trade Exhibition Center (Mitec) vaccine distribution centre today.
Khairy however admitted that several Covid-19 vaccine centers in the country ran out of supply recently due to high utilisation rate.
He said the issue was not widespread and only involved several PPVs which he did not name.
“We are now increasing the rate of vaccination. Due to this, several PPVs recently had run out of stock.
“However, such incidents only happened at several PPVs, not many. And this was because they ran out of vaccines while new stocks were not able to reach them on time.
“But this situation only lasted for several days. We hope that by July when we receive more supply, this will not happen again,” Khairy said.
In a related matter, Khairy added that 19 industrial PPV will be opened by the end of this month in Malaysia.
He said that currently, four are in operation.
“I would also like to touch on the Oil and Gas Industry Vaccine Centre (PPV) operation in Kerteh, Terengganu on July 1 and the Eastern Steel Industrial PPV in Kemaman, Terengganu on July 2.
“The vaccination programme of this economic sector will be expanded to other industries in the near future. Vaccination for the economic sector is included in the epidemic control phase which is mobilised in line with Phase 2 and Phase 3 of PICK as required,” he said.
Yesterday, Bernama reported that a total of 2,082 companies nationwide with 301,050 workers have applied to participate in the Public-Private Partnership Covid-19 Industry Immunisation Programme (PIKAS) as of June 16, 2021.