Health Ministry ready to implement first phase of national immunisation

 

The Health Ministry is prepared to implement the first phase of the National Covid-19 Immunisation Plan, once the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines arrive in Malaysia on Feb 26, said Health Minister Dr Adham Baba.

He said the vaccine delivery dry runs to Belaga Health Clinic in Sarawak on Jan 29 and Bintulu Hospital on Jan 30 went smoothly without any problems.

He said the test runs were to ensure the supply of vaccines by US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, coming from Puurs, Belgium, could be kept at ultra-low temperatures throughout the journey to Malaysia.

"The dry run is important and the input data logger which monitors the delivery process showed satisfactory results," he told reporters after introducing an online educational platform on Covid-19 in Putrajaya today.

Adham said vaccine storage for the first phase, with facilities such as ultra-low-temperature freezers (ULTFs), was to ensure that the vaccines are maintained at the correct temperature before being removed and distributed to vaccination sites that have been identified.

On the Covid-19 educational platform, he said the idea, mooted by Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) biochemist Peter Chew, was to create awareness on how to prevent being infected by Covid-19.

"It is important to give basic education to the community, especially those who live far from health facilities, so they will take heed of the new norms such as physical distancing, wearing a face mask, washing their hands often, and avoiding crowded places during an outbreak," he said.

Meanwhile, Chew said silent carriers were the cause of widespread transmission during the Covid-19 second wave in Malaysia and as such basic education is important and measures must be taken to curb the spread of infection as well as to reduce medical expenses.

- Bernama