KUALA LUMPUR, June 9 — The Selangor state government will begin its Covid-19 inoculation drive early July, expecting delivery of the first batch of 2.5 million vaccine doses it purchased to arrive at the end of this month.
Selangor Menteri Besar Amirudin Shari, however, declined to reveal the brand and price of the vaccine the state has secured, citing an agreement that restricts him from disclosing the terms of the contract.
Selangor — the country’s most populous and developed state — has allocated RM200 million in total for the Selangor Covid-19 Vaccination Programme (SCVP), which Amirudin said includes the cost of procuring 2.5 million doses.
The fund will be given as a loan to SELGATE Healthcare, a subsidiary of SELGATE Corporation Sdn Bhd that will manage the state-level vaccination drive, said Amirudin.
The SCVP will see 500,000 doses distributed for free to 250,000 primary recipients identified by the state. Those being considered include high-risk groups, such as the elderly and industry workers in the manufacturing and services sectors.
Amirudin said the list will be finalised upon further discussion with the Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF) and the federal government. Inoculation with the rest of the Covid-19 doses procured by the state will be subjected to a fee that will be charged to interested private entities.
“The first phase will be given out for free. We have identified 250,000 people, which will involve the distribution of 500,000 doses. The phase that follows will focus on employers or business operators who are looking to vaccinate their workers.
“If there is a surplus from the current order, we will use it for other groups, including children under 18 who will soon be allowed to receive Covid-19 vaccines,” Amirudin told a media briefing after announcing the state’s RM551.56 million Kita Selangor 2.0 stimulus package today.
The Selangor state government will discuss with Putrajaya on fees that will be charged to vaccine recipients per dose for the remaining bulk of the vaccines procured under the SCVP, with Amirudin assuring that the fee will not be used to make a profit off of vaccines.
Selangor is one of the main Covid-19 epicentres in the country, reporting over 2,200 daily infections on average this month, amid the state’s ongoing community testing programmes.
On June 1, Pharmaniaga said it received orders for seven million Covid-19 vaccine doses, consisting of four million doses from government-linked companies (GLCs) and three million doses from state governments, without naming the state governments that have ordered the Sinovac vaccines.
Pharmaniaga is the sole manufacturer to produce Sinovac’s Covid-19 vaccine via fill-and-finish and sole distributor to import the finished product from Beijing, China.
Health Minister Dr Adham Baba said the distribution of the Sinovac vaccines to both state and private entities will run parallel with the second and third phases of the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) as part of efforts to ramp up vaccinations amid a surge of Covid-19 infections.
Dr Adham said the delivery of the vaccines is expected to be carried out immediately, upon the Special Committee on Ensuring Access to Covid-19 Vaccine Supply’s (JKJAV) approval, as the federal government has given the go-ahead on the matter.
