Give 20,000 donated doses to hawkers, workers immediately, says Guan Eng

 

Lim Guan Eng says the current disruption in vaccine supply had caused havoc to Penang’s vaccination programme and efforts to reopen its economy.

PETALING JAYA: The 20,000 doses of the Sinovac vaccine donated by Selangor to Penang should be used immediately on all hawkers and workers in business establishments to accelerate the opening of the economy, says DAP’s Lim Guan Eng.

The party secretary-general said the current disruption in supply had “caused havoc” to  the state’s vaccination programme, whereby  Melaka has now surpassed Penang in terms of fully vaccinated adults.

Lim added that the state received only 24,318 doses on Friday, which was well below its target of at least 30,000 daily vaccinations last month.

“Penang recorded the highest number of deaths at 38 on Aug 27 and the surge of infections in Penang continues to rise unabated,” he said in a statement. The state reported 17 deaths yesterday.

“There is an urgent need to ramp up vaccination as one of the most effective measures to mitigate the effects of Covid-19.”

Claiming that Penangites were beginning to blame the state government, Lim said the Penang health excutive council (exco) must work harder to prevent delays in vaccination, which in turn could lead to more deaths in the state.

Earlier this week, it was announced that Selangor would lend 200,000 doses to Penang to address the shortages caused by a disruption in the supply of Pfizer vaccines. This is to be returned by the Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF) when the vaccine supply is restored.

Selangor menteri besar Amirudin Shari had also agreed to donate an additional 20,000 to Penang. - FMT