More vaccine shots than people waiting for jabs

 

Health minister Khairy Jamaluddin on a working visit to Kedah today. (KKM pic)

PETALING JAYA: Vaccination centres in Kedah have more stocks of vaccine doses than the number of people waiting to be vaccinated, health minister Khairy Jamaluddin said today.

Khairy, on a working visit to Kedah, said greater efforts should be made to ensure about 17% more adults in the state are vaccinated, with more attention given to districts with low vaccination rates, such as Pendang and Baling.

He said the health ministry would take greater efforts at tracking down those who refused to be vaccinated.

“We have done our best and sent out as many (vaccination) appointments as possible. At the moment, most of the vaccine administration centres (PPV) are almost empty. So we will track down people who are ‘degil’ (stubborn). We must track, find and go to them,” he said according to NST Online.

“We have reached the end of the national immunisation programme,” he was quoted as saying. “We can no longer hit 500,000 doses administered a day since there are no more people (left to get vaccinated). However, there are locations such as Sik, Pendang and Baling where we need to carry out outreach programmes,” he said.

Khairy also called for greater efforts to ensure compliance with home quarantine orders. He said there had been 523 check-ins at shops by people who were in home quarantine, with 18% of check-ins at supermarkets.

Supervision at entrances should be tightened, he said.

Employers had also been asked to tighten security by allowing only fully vaccinated individuals to return to work. - FMT