A million Covid-19 vaccine doses arrive in KLIA

 

Malaysia has received the delivery of over a million vaccine doses today for its National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme.

In a statement, the Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force said a shipment of 559,200 AstraZeneca vaccine doses arrived via flight MH6125 at 7.50am this morning.

The shipment is part of Malaysia’s vaccine orders made through the Covax facility led by the World Health Organisation and its partners, and adds to the previous delivery of 268,800 doses.

Another shipment of 559,200 doses is expected to arrive by the end of the month.

Meanwhile, the other shipment involves 500,000 doses of the Sinovac vaccine. These are finished products, not bulk shipments that need to be filled-and-finished prior to distribution to vaccine administration centres.

The total comes to 1,059,200 doses delivered today.

“All this is part of the government’s plan to redouble the vaccination process under the NIP. An increase in vaccine administration would begin to be seen later in June as one of the government’s efforts to protect Malaysians from the Covid-19 pandemic.

“As announced yesterday, NIP is currently going according to plan with vaccination rates in Malaysia continuing to increase in line with the increasing vaccine supplies that will arrive from time-to-time,” CITF said in a statement today.

It added that the daily vaccine administration rates have been increasing. There were 60,261 doses administered on Monday, 76,551 doses administered on Tuesday, and 83,648 doses administered on Wednesday.

The deliveries were made just as Malaysia prepares for another round of opt-in registration for the AstraZeneca vaccine.

The previous round of registration on May 2 saw 268,800 snapped up in under four hours.

At the time, all adults in the Klang Valley were eligible for vaccination.

In the next round that opens at noon on Sunday, 1.1 million doses will be available to residents in Johor, Penang, Kuala Lumpur Sarawak, and Selangor.

Registration is open to those above 60 years old from May 23 to May 26, as well as those on the waiting list from the first round of registration.

After May 26, any slots still available will be opened to all adults.

The government has created a parallel track for getting the AstraZeneca vaccine after concerns over rare blood clots prompted many to cancel their registration to be vaccinated.

The Covid-19 vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Sinovac are currently being used in the mainstream vaccination programme. For the ongoing second phase of the programme, senior citizens, people with disabilities, and people with chronic illnesses are being prioritised. - Mkini