DAP to KJ: What happened to the 5m vaccines from Europe?

 

Vaccine minister Khairy Jamaluddin has been urged to explain what happened to the five million doses of vaccines which Europe claims to have delivered to Malaysia.

In a statement today, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said this explanation was necessary because the European Union ambassador Michalis Rokas has denied Khairy's allegations that the EU was hoarding Covid-19 vaccines.

"If the EU did not hoard the vaccines as claimed by Khairy, this gives rise to the important question as to what happened to the 5 million doses and how they were given and applied to Malaysians," said Lim.

Yesterday, Rokas said figures as of June 15 showed that 4.87 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and 560,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine had been shipped to Malaysia, through the Covax scheme.

The approval process, said Rokas, took three days at most.

Rokas was responding to allegations by Khairy that Malaysia's vaccine supply from Europe had been delayed, while countries such as the UK had enough vaccines to inoculate its population several times over.

As of June 21, 18.73 percent out of an estimated 23.41 million adults in the country have received at least one Covid-19 vaccine dose. Putrajaya aims to vaccinate 80 percent of the population by year-end.

Lim said Putrajaya should not blame others for the slow rollout of the vaccination programme and instead admit weaknesses in the procurement process.

"And the latest to be blamed is the EU which has rebutted with facts and figures that the allegations are baseless.

"If this is the best that Perikatan Nasional can do, then there is every reason for the public loss of confidence and trust deficit," said Lim. - Mkini