Selangor health executive councillor Siti Mariah Mahmud has hit out at minister in charge of the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (NIP) Khairy Jamaluddin, who claimed yesterday that Selangor did not have an issue with vaccine supply but faced problems related to vaccination capacity.
“It really seems that the minister does not know the problem on the ground. Selangor has the capacity to do more. If it continues as he says, after a few days, there will be vaccine dispensing centres (PPVs) that will have to be closed temporarily.
“Don’t lie by saying there is enough supply. Be truthful or your nose will get longer,” she tweeted and tagged Khairy, in an apparent reference to Pinocchio, a character in a children’s story whose nose grows larger when he tells a falsehood.
In a follow-up Tweet she said that if Selangor was discriminated against, the whole country will suffer.
Selangor has been governed by Pakatan Harapan, and its predecessor coalition Pakatan Rakyat, since 2008.
During a press conference yesterday, Khairy said that Selangor has to increase its vaccination rate when asked why the state - which is densely populated - has a low vaccination rate.
“We have increased (vaccine) distribution to Selangor in June and July. I think they are getting more than 20 percent of the total vaccine supply.
“Selangor has issues with capacity. They were vaccinating at a rate of about 20,000 a day. I had to visit Selangor, to work with the state government to increase the capacity.
“Now they’re doing almost 50,000 doses a day. But they need to do more than 100,000 a day,” he said.
Vaksin Selangor programme launched
The Selangor government rolled out its “Vaksin Selangor” programme at selected locations yesterday, two days ahead of its scheduled June 28 launch, with Siti Mariah saying it was a “dry run”.
The official launch will proceed this coming Monday as planned, she added.
Siti Mariah confirmed that the vaccines administered will be Sinovac’s CoronaVac which the state government directly purchased from federal GLC Pharmaniaga.
Menteri Besar Amirudin Shari previously said the state government spent RM200 million to buy about 2.5 million doses.
Through Vaksin Selangor, the state government aims to speed up Covid-19 vaccinations in the frontline state.
Despite having the highest number of Covid-19 cases and deaths nationwide, Selangor lags in terms of vaccination rates.
The initiative is supposed to complement Putrajaya’s ongoing NIP. For example, those vaccinated under Vaksin Selangor will have their status updated on their MySejahtera app.
Unlike free vaccines under the NIP, the initiative allows businesses to buy access to vaccines for their employees through the Selangkah platform.
On June 8, Selangor’s Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah expressed shock that the nation’s most populous state had at the time only received 615,210 doses of vaccines.
He also urged for more vaccination centres to be set up in the state, especially in rural areas, and the use of mobile clinics and drive-thru vaccination centres to increase coverage. - Mkini
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