KUALA LUMPUR, June 28 — Pharmaniaga Bhd will only be supplying a portion of Selangor’s order of Sinovac’s Covid-19 vaccine pending completion of the federal government’s order, Khairy Jamaluddin said today.
The federal vaccine minister said that the government-linked pharmaceutical manufacturer is supposed to supply Sinovac vaccines for the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) first before distributing the shots to any other party, including state governments.
However, since Selangor has requested Sinovac vaccines for their own immunisation programme, allowing delivery of parts of the state government’s order will enable Selangor to run its own pilot Covid-19 vaccination programme, according to Khairy.
“That is why we allow certain portions to be given to Selangor first. It is okay. That initiative will help the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme too.
“But the rest of the supply will only be given to the state after the federal government receives its full supply from Pharmaniaga,” Khairy said today in a press conference during his visit to Selangor’s Tanjung Karang Covid-19 vaccination centre.
Selangor began its state-run Covid-19 vaccination programme under SELGATE Healthcare, a subsidiary of state-owned SELGATE Corporation Sdn Bhd today. The vaccination initiative will be carried out in 24 vaccination centres across the state, including convention centres, six community halls and 13 SelCare clinics.
The Selangor state government earlier stated that it will begin its Covid-19 inoculation drive early July and expects delivery of the first batch of 2.5 million Sinovac vaccine doses it purchased from Pharmaniaga to arrive at the end of this month.
Selangor — the country’s most populous and developed state — has allocated RM200 million in total for the Selangor Covid-19 Vaccination Programme (SCVP), including the cost of procuring 2.5 million doses.
Data from the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation stated that the federal government is expected to receive only about 3.1 million Sinovac doses by July 2, or just a quarter of the 12-million order.
“So I have agreed to the request of Selangor Menteri Besar to begin Selangor’s own vaccination programme,” Khairy said today.
“However, the reporting of this programme has to be streamlined. We don’t want an overlap in the reporting.”
Khairy said that details of those who receive vaccines from the Selangor state government should be updated in the federal MySejahtera application to avoid confusion in the total number of vaccine recipients.
Besides that Khairy also responded to allegations made by Selangor public health executive councillor Dr Siti Mariah Mahmud, who claimed that the state’s vaccination centres are running out of Covid-19 vaccines as Putrajaya failed to supply the state enough vaccines.
Khairy said that Selangor has the lowest Covid-19 vaccine administration rate in the country at 76 per cent.
As of June 27, a total of 1,367,306 coronavirus vaccine doses have been delivered to the state, including a balance of 322,606 doses yet to be administered.
“So I request Selangor to speed up their vaccine administration process. The allegation that vaccines were not sent to Selangor is untrue. We want to send more vaccines. But we have to look at their vaccine administration capacity as well,” said Khairy.
Khairy said that he had a meeting with Selangor Menteri Besar Amiruddin Shari two weeks ago, where Amiruddin stated that the state is able to administer 40,000 doses per day for the month of June.
However, Dr Siti Mariah claimed that the state is administering 87,616 doses of Covid-19 vaccines every day.
“The state’s health executive councillor did not attend the meeting,” said Khairy.
“In July, we will increase Selangor’s capacity to 130,000 jabs per day. That is our plan for the month of July.”
Khairy also pointed out that the federal government is increasing Covid-19 vaccination sites, including mega and small centres in various localities in Selangor to increase the state’s vaccination capacity.