Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said those who receive their Covid-19 vaccinations from private hospitals or clinics will not have to pay as long as it was a vaccine appointment from the government.
“For private hospitals, if they are identified as a vaccination centre, that means whoever gets an appointment at the private hospital or clinic, there is no need to pay any charges.
“This is for private hospitals that are involved in the National Immunisation Programme,” Khairy said in a press conference today on the progress of the immunisation programme against Covid-19.
The press conference in Putrajaya, which was also attended by Health Minister Dr Adham Baba, was broadcasted in an online video conference call.
Previously, Adham had said that private general practitioners will be recruited to help administer the vaccine under the immunisation programme.
Khairy today explained that, in the vaccine appointments, individuals will be directed to the vaccination centre nearest to their residence, which may turn out to be a private hospital or clinic.
“This is because we want to make this programme convenient,” he explained.
Khairy also addressed concerns about the AstraZeneca vaccine, as some countries had halted the rollout of the vaccine after several people reported developing blood clots after being inoculated.
He said there has been no causal link established so far between the AstraZeneca vaccine and the blood clot cases but he assured that the government will examine this matter.
“The AstraZeneca vaccine has not reached Malaysia yet and it is not used in Malaysia yet.
“When it arrives, we will look at the data from those incidents, but so far there is no effect,” he said.
The AstraZeneca vaccines were supposed to arrive in Malaysia in the first quarter of the year, Khairy said, but until now they have yet to provide a delivery schedule.
For now, he said, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine doses and the Sinovac vaccine doses scheduled to arrive within this month are still on track.
Malaysia will receive 83,070 more Pfizer vaccine doses and 100,000 finished Sinovac vaccine doses today (March 15), he said, with another 124,020 doses from Pfizer and 100,000 doses from Sinovac on March 22.
Finally, Pfizer will deliver 125,190 more doses on March 29, which means Malaysia will have over one million Pfizer vaccine doses by that point.
Khairy said Pfizer has been efficient so far in delivering the Covid-19 vaccines, which is why the government has decided there is no need to reserve half of the current stock of vaccines for the second dose.
“We have the delivery schedule from Pfizer and Pfizer so far looks efficient.
“That means we do not have to wait for two doses (per person) to be here in order to start giving doses to someone who has not received the vaccine,” he explained.
Adham also pointed out that starting this Wednesday, it will have been 21 days since the first Covid-19 vaccination in Malaysia.
This means that the second dose of the Covid-19 vaccine can begin to be administered starting this Wednesday. - Mkini
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