Perak Mentri Besar Datuk Saarani Mohamad (centre) poses for the camera during a visit to the Pikas vaccination centre at Hotel Casuarina Meru in Ipoh July 23, 2021. — Picture by Farhan Najib
IPOH, July 23 — Perak will not move to Phase Three of the National Recovery Plan (NRP) until 40 per cent of its population are fully vaccinated, said Mentri Besar Datuk Saarani Mohamad.
At the moment, Saarani said that only 10.8 per cent or 311,793 individuals aged 18 and above have completed both doses of vaccines in the state, while 32.25 or 600,627 individuals have completed the first dose.
“One of the conditions set by the National Security Council is that 40 per cent of the population need to be fully vaccinated if we want to move to Phase 3.
“If we look into Covid-19 cases in the state, they’re still low and the beds in the intensive care units in hospitals around the state are sufficient. So, the only thing that is stopping us is the vaccination percentage,” he said at a press conference after visiting the Public-Private Partnership Covid-19 Industry Immunisation Programme (Pikas) vaccination centre at Hotel Casuarina Meru here.
Saarani also stressed that the low rate of vaccination is because the state did not receive the supply of vaccines as previously scheduled.
“It has nothing to do with the issue of vaccination centres or lacking enough machinery to carry out the vaccination process.
“The problem is we don’t get enough supply of vaccines as per scheduled,” he said.
Saarani also pointed out that the state should have received a total of 688,000 doses of vaccines, but has only gotten 452,610 doses so far.
He also said the state is expected to receive the remaining 236,550 vaccines by August 1.
“However, this figure is subjected to the current situation in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur.
“I understand priority is given to states where infection rates are increasing,” he said.
He added that the state is capable of administering 30,000 doses of vaccines daily with the current vaccination facilities.
Separately, Saarani also said that the state has opened three Pikas vaccination centres namely PPV Convention Centre Casuarina Meru, PPV Kompleks Sukan Proton and PPV Sapura Fabrication Sdn. Bhd, to expedite vaccination process among industries’ workers.
“We will be opening another Pikas vaccination centre in Taiping at the St. Louis hall next Wednesday,” he added.