KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 9 — ProtectHealth Corporation aims to increase private medical practitioners’ participation in outreach Covid-19 vaccination programmes, after more than 70 per cent of adults nationwide were fully inoculated.
The company owned by the Ministry of Health (MOH) also called on health-based non-governmental organisations (NGO) to foster this initiative under the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK), after vaccination centres (PPVs) have begun closing in stages in areas with high vaccination coverage.
“Besides Ministry of Health Malaysia PPVs, PPS (private medical practitioners) and NGOs are the last frontier as vaccine administrators to fulfill local vaccination need and for groups in need,” ProtectHealth said in a statement today.
Under Operation Surge Capacity (OSC), ProtectHealth — which manages coronavirus vaccine rollouts by private clinics and hospitals — has successfully administered a total of 10,125,055 Covid-19 vaccine doses, or 79 per cent of the total vaccination in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur.
“ProtectHealth also administered 2,256,963 vaccine doses in Johor (58 per cent) and 1,199,698 (57 per cent) vaccine doses in Penang,” ProtectHealth CEO Anas Alam Faizli mentioned in a statement.
“At the national level, ProtectHealth administered 17,552,423 vaccine doses — 47 per cent of the total vaccine administration under PICK in the entire country.”
Dr Anas also added that to date, there are more than 2,000 PPVs involving private medical practitioners and NGOs supervised by ProtectHealth. That includes 1,635 PPVGP (private general medical practitioners), 31 PPVKP (specialist clinics), 122 PPVHS (private hospitals), 25 PPVACC (ambulatory care centres), 105 integrated or mega PPV and 177 PPVIN (critical economic sectors).
Among the PPVINs involving private medical practitioners and NGOs are the Public-Private Covid-19 Industrial Immunisation Programme (PIKAS) under the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, Construction Industry Vaccination Programme (CIVac) under the Ministry of Works, Agrofood Industry Vaccination Program (AiVAC) under the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry, Retail Industry Vaccination (RiVac) under the The Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs, as well as vaccination programmes under the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Plantation Industries and Commodities.
Anas said NGOs registered with ProtectHealth, such as Mercy Malaysia, the Red Crescent Society, IMARET, and the National Cancer Society Malaysia, have begun vaccinating bed-ridden patients and people who find it difficult to go to PPVs for their jabs nationwide since July 6.
Apart from that, private medical practitioners and NGOs have also implemented the Community Vaccine Mobilisation Programme (MOVAK) with the Ministry of Housing and Local Government and Yayasan Felda to expand outreach in rural areas since August 23.
“All outreach and mopping up programmes involving PPS and NGOs under ProtectHealth have successfully delivered more than 70,000 doses of vaccines.”
It is to be noted that walk-in vaccination for Covid-19 will be suspended in the Klang Valley from September 15.
As the majority of adults have already completed their vaccination in the Klang Valley, the government has started to close 23 PPVs in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Negeri Sembilan in stages from September 6 until September 30.
People who have yet to be vaccinated can still get Covid-19 vaccines in certain clinics. According to official statistics, Negeri Sembilan and the Klang Valley have double-jabbed 85 per cent and 98 per cent of their adult populations respectively.
Anas, who thanked all the private medical practitioners and NGOs involved in PICK, said each type of PPV plays its own role with a specific target population.
“With the high vaccination rate that has been achieved, now the next step is to ensure that outreach (mopping up) is implemented to reach all Malaysians.”
