KUALA LUMPUR, March 15 — Only 302 members of federal and state administrations and elected representatives have received Covid-19 vaccines, forming just 0.11 per cent of 292,104 people inoculated, Khairy Jamaluddin said today.
The 292,104 people who received the first dose of Covid-19 vaccine as of March 13 comprise 23.86 per cent nurses, 22.23 per cent doctors, 23.40 per cent other health care workers like medical assistants, radiographers, and ambulance drivers, as well as 5.62 per cent dentists and 3.45 per cent pharmacists.
A total of 21.33 per cent of those who have been vaccinated are other frontliners, including the Malaysian Armed Forces, police, civil defence, immigration officers, and Rela, Khairy mentioned in a joint virtual press conference with Health Minister Dr Adham Baba.
According to Vaccine Minister Khairy, Malaysia will receive 83,070 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine and 100,000 doses of Sinovac’s vaccine today. On March 22, another 124,020 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and 100,000 doses of Sinovac vaccine will reach the country.
On March 29, the country will get 125,190 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, bringing the cumulative doses to 1,000,350. That will complete the delivery of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine doses for the first quarter of the year.
“On March 18, at 1:30p.m, we will begin the inoculation using the Sinovac vaccine in Rembau Hospital. I’ll be the first person who will receive the Sinovac vaccination,” Khairy added.
The Sinovac jab that Khairy is getting is the finished product made in China. The National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA) has yet to approve local pharmaceutical company Pharmaniaga Bhd’s fill-and-finish facility to process Sinovac’s Covid-19 vaccine, although the vaccine itself has been given conditional registration.
