Coronavirus: Malaysia
Selangor among states seeking to buy own vaccines
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Residents of Sungai Tua constituency in Selangor getting free Covid-19 swabs as part of health checks in 56 of the Malaysian state's wards. With the number of daily infections rising, several states, including Selangor, are rushing to procure their own vaccines, much to the dismay of the federal government.
PHOTO: BERNAMA
Ram Anand Malaysia Correspondent In Kuala Lumpur, Ram Anand
Desperate for the coronavirus vaccine, several Malaysian states have moved to procure their own supplies, to the dismay of the federal government.
Health authorities reported a record of 6,075 cases yesterday, topping Jan 30's 5,728 cases.
Coordinating Minister for Immunisation Khairy Jamaluddin said that one of the states, opposition-led Penang, had been duped by a "bogus" offer for a donation of vaccine doses from a private company, after the state government claimed the federal authorities were blocking the donation.
"This offer is false. This is a scam. This is bogus," Mr Khairy said yesterday, brandishing a letter from a Malaysian businessman based in Sabah, Mr Yong Chee Kong, addressed to Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow in February.
In the letter, Mr Yong, who claimed to be the managing director of a company in Hong Kong, said that he wanted to donate two million doses of China's Sinovac vaccine to the state.
Mr Chow on Tuesday pleaded with the federal government not to block the donation, after the Health Ministry rejected the state's request to accept it as the Sinovac vaccine had yet to receive approval from Malaysia's pharmaceutical regulatory agency, the NPRA, in February. The approval was given in March.
Mr Khairy urged Penang to "not politicise" the national immunisation efforts. He said he was willing to help states procure their own vaccines if such offers were valid.
Other states are also pushing to secure their own vaccine stocks.
Selangor, which is led by the opposition Pakatan Harapan and is the most populous as well as most industrialised state in Malaysia, said it had agreed to procure 2.5 million doses of a vaccine, without disclosing its manufacturer.
Sarawak said it would buy 1 million doses of the Sinovac vaccine.
The Selangor authorities have opened a register in their own contact tracing app, Selangkah, to allow private firms to indicate interest in paying for their employees to be vaccinated from stocks procured by the state.
At yesterday's press conference, Mr Khairy insisted that the national immunisation programme - which aims to inoculate all Malaysian residents, including migrants and refugees, for free - would still be the quickest way for all to be vaccinated.
He said the federal government would have to receive all 12 million doses of the Sinovac vaccine it had ordered first before any state could receive them.
Malaysia's Sinovac supply will come via local pharmaceutical company Pharmaniaga, which will distribute it locally.
But he insisted that the country was still on track to complete inoculating 80 per cent of its adult population by the end of the year.
"From June onwards, the pace of our vaccination will pick up," Mr Khairy said, as most of the supplies ordered begin arriving.
Malaysia so far has approved three vaccines, although only two of them are being used in the national vaccination programme - the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and Sinovac. It has also procured the AstraZeneca vaccine, but is offering this on an opt-in basis.
The country is considering approving Russia's Sputnik V vaccine while the Moderna one from the US is expected to be made part of the roll-out of the vaccination programme by private hospitals in the latter part of this year.
Malaysia is under lockdown - its third from early 2020 - till June 7.
