KUALA LUMPUR, June 5 — The Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF) today acknowledged it erred in stating that Selangor had received about 2.9 million Covid-19 vaccine doses as of May 30.
CITF clarified that Selangor had received, for statewide distribution, 615,210 coronavirus vaccine doses as of June 1 — matching the figure provided by the Selangor state government — comprising 434,070 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, 146,440 Sinovac vaccine doses, and 34,700 AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine doses.
“The number that was earlier provided to CodeBlue includes both stock in government facilities and partially still in the distributor’s warehouse which is located in Selangor and ready for distribution to the whole country,” CITF said in a statement to CodeBlue today.
CodeBlue reported last Thursday figures provided by Vaccine Minister Khairy Jamaluddin at his May 31 press conference on the state breakdown of Covid-19 vaccine deliveries, including 2,909,670 doses to Selangor, when CodeBlue asked for the data.
Khairy’s office also shared the same data with the media after the press conference. Both the science, technology and innovation minister and his office did not specify — prior to CodeBlue’s report — that the Selangor number included vaccine doses in the distributor’s warehouse located in the state meant for nationwide distribution.
CodeBlue previously attempted to clarify with Khairy’s office the huge number of 2.5 million doses purportedly sitting in Selangor freezers and discrepancies in several other states that appeared to administer more doses than they received, but did not receive an explanation prior to publication of the report.
CodeBlue’s report tabulated the number of vaccine doses left unutilised in each state by comparing the number of doses delivered, based on data from Khairy’s press conference, and doses administered based on public posts by the Special Committee on Ensuring Access to Covid-19 Vaccine Supply (JKJAV).
“This made Selangor the state with the highest number of vaccines delivered as of June 1st, (615,210 doses), followed by Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya with 578,130 doses and Johor with 370,680 doses respectively,” said CITF in its statement today.
“The error in providing the data to CodeBlue is regrettable.”
Selangor state executive councillor in charge of public health, Dr Siti Mariah Mahmud, said in a statement Thursday that according to the Selangor state health department, which is under the federal Ministry of Health, the state had only received 615,210 Covid-19 vaccine doses as of June 1, not 2.9 million doses as previously announced by Khairy. According to her, 425,970 doses have been administered in Selangor, which leaves 189,240 doses in storage, not 2.5 million.
