KULAI (THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - Malaysia aims to vaccinate up to 126,000 individuals a day once the country's National Covid-19 Vaccination programme kicks-in at the end of this month.
Health Minister Dr Adham Baba said that seven officers conducting the inoculations would be placed at each of the 600 vaccination stations nationwide.
"The Health Ministry has identified and prepared 600 vaccination stations nationwide that include places such as health clinics as well as government and private hospitals.
"We will place seven vaccinators at each of these stations. One vaccinator is expected to be able to jab 30 individuals in one day, this means that a maximum of 210 people could receive the vaccine at each of the stations daily," he told the media at an inspection of the living quarters of foreign workers at the Senai Industrial area in Kulai, Johor, on Saturday (Feb 13).
Datuk Seri Adham said there would not be any delay in the delivery of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
"We have secured the vaccine and the Vaccination Programme would be rolled out as planned starting from Feb 26 with the first phase focusing on frontliners," he added.
Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said on Feb 4 that the national Covid-19 immunisation programme is targeting 80 per cent of the country's 32 million population, or 26.5 million individuals, to receive the vaccine.
The programme will be conducted in three phases and will be given free.
The first phase, from February to April, is for the 500,000 frontliners who are directly involved in the fight against Covid-19.
The second phase, from April to August, is for the high-risk group comprising senior citizens aged 60 and above and the vulnerable group with morbidity problems, such as heart disease, obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure, as well as persons with disabilities.
The third phase is from May to February next year and it is for those aged 18 and above.
The Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said some 3 million foreign nationals in Malaysia will also get free vaccinations, and said the dates for their inoculations would be announced later.
