KUALA LUMPUR, March 18 — Former Prime Minister Najib Razak cancelled his March 6 appointment to get a Covid-19 vaccine shot in Pekan, Vaccine Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said today.
Khairy was responding to Najib’s Facebook post, who noted that the government’s vaccination progress is slow, as Malaysia has only administered 0.99 doses per 100 people, the lowest compared to the United Kingdom (39.68 per 100 people), the United States (33.36 per 100 people), Singapore (13.89 per 100 people), India (2.55 per 100 people), and Indonesia (2.32 per 100 people).
Khairy pointed out that Najib himself, who is Pekan MP, had cancelled his own vaccination appointment that was scheduled on March 6 in Canselori Hall, DRB University Hicom in Pekan, Pahang.
“So, I hope Dato’ Sri will attend the appointment that will be fixed once again later,” Khairy told Najib.
“I am thankful to Dato’ Sri for always giving advice and opinions through Dato’ Sri’s Facebook posts to ensure that PICK (National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme) can be carried out smoothly and successfully.”
“At the same time, I hope Dato’ Sri can help to encourage more vaccine registration for the rakyat in Pekan district, as currently only 13,020 citizens (equivalent to 14.4 per capita) in Pekan district have registered,” the vaccine minister said.
“Don’t just write and promote on Facebook, but go down to the ground and encourage and help with the registration.”
Khairy said PICK can only be successful if a high number of people register for the vaccine.
Yesterday, Health Minister Dr Adham Baba in a statement said that only 1,487,326 people with comorbidities and the elerly above the age of 60 have registered for the vaccine through the MySejahtera application, which is only 16 per cent of Phase Two’s target of vaccinating 9.4 million people.
In terms of Malaysia’s daily Covid-19 vaccination rates, Khairy stressed that he had explained before that the daily target of vaccinating 150,000 to 160,000 individuals per day will only be in Phase Three as during this time, more vaccination centres will be open.
However, Khairy said that he will be briefing all MPs on PICK, including Najib who has also received an invitation for the briefing.
“So, I hope Dato’ Sri can attend that day and can directly give your views or throw your questions on PICK.”
