Muhyiddin speaks at the meet-the-people session in Samarahan. – Photo by Roystein Emmor
KUCHING (Apr 2): Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has assured that more Covid-19 vaccines will be sent to Sarawak.
He acknowledged that Sarawak had done very well in providing vaccination facilities throughout the state, noting that some 180 vaccination centres had been made ready in Sarawak to manage more than 1.5 million people.
“I promise, when I return to Kuala Lumpur I will tell the minister-in-charge to immediately deliver more vaccines to Sarawak so that the people of Sarawak will be spared from being infected with the Covid-19 virus,” he said at the meet-the-people session at Sri Samarahan Hall, IPG Tun Abdul Razak today.
The Prime Minister said the federal government had spent about RM8 billion to help deal with the problem of Covid-19 alone, excluding the allocation to buy vaccines.
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He said he had instructed the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation as well as the Minister of Health early on to quickly consult the suppliers in the world that produce the vaccines.
“No matter who they are, we just negotiate. Today we have completed the negotiations and have been able to sign contracts to purchase (vaccines for) 150 per cent of the country’s population.
“Why can it be up to 150 per cent, why 100 per cent is not? This is to make sure that there are vaccines available for us if there is a need for it after everyone had receives the doses,” he said.
Muhyiddin said there are countries that are still waiting for the vaccines until today, not having a single dose supplied to them by the suppliers because they were late in negotiating.
He said the negotiated price made by the Malaysian government with its suppliers was better compared to the prices being paid by some developed countries.
He said this was because Malaysia had been farsighted and it is important.
He said aside from that, the government also cannot compromise and take things involving the life of the people so lightly.
“We have to act fast. At that time, even if the vaccine was expensive we just want to buy it for people’s sake,” he said.
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