Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg being administered the Covid-19 vaccine in Kuching on Feb 26.
KUCHING (Mar 16): Sarawak is closer to realising its aim at completing the Covid-19 vaccination in August as Putrajaya has no objections to state governments purchasing their own vaccines.
Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said today that the state governments can buy their own vaccines but the problem they would face is not in procurement, but supply of the vaccines.
“On the matter of buying the vaccines, everyone is interested, but the problem is the access of the vaccines.
“If they can get the vaccines, then I don’t have any problem with that. We can give the permission to the state governments for the procurement, but just that at this moment, I know there is a problem in the supply,” he said in a Malay Mail report today.
Khairy, who is in charge of the national Covid-19 immunisation programme, said several states have indicated their intent to buy the vaccines for their own immunisation programme, naming Selangor, Pahang, Johor and Sarawak among them.
To Khairy, the focus now should be on encouraging everyone in Malaysia who has yet to do so to register for the national immunisation programme as the sole authority that vets the vaccines for approval is the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA).
“For now we want to solve the registration for the vaccines purchased by the federal government via the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency.
“There is a lot of work here. NPRA has to sanction two more vaccines. So once that has been solved, maybe NPRA can help the state governments with the procurement of the vaccines,” he said.
Sarawak is aiming at completing its vaccination programme for more than 2 million people in the state some five months ahead of the national plan which is targeted for completion in February next year.
However, whether or not this could be achieved had depended on the availability of supply from the Federal government.
On March 1, Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) chairman Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas said the state government was looking into the possibility of purchasing its own Covid-19 vaccines.
He said Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg had instructed a team in SDMC to find ways on how to purchase the vaccines.
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