THE Penang government hopes that there would be no disruption on the supply of Covid-19 vaccines to all the states, including Penang, although the political climate in the country had escalated and sparked new indifferences between the ruling and opposition parties lately.
Responding to a question by a journalist today, Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow is confident that the Federal Government would not allow the ongoing National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (NIP) to face any hiccups.
He said this following the comments made by a Federal Government minister that full focus for now would be to successfully complete the NIP.
“We have heard the commitment by the minister that he wants to focus on the vaccination programme, which is highly relevant and should be given utmost priority due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
“No matter what, the vaccination programme must go on.
“This is important because it involves the health, safety and security of the people,” Chow said after visiting the Penang Covid-19 mass screening (PSC-19) in Padang Kota today.
State Housing, Local Government, Town and Country Planning Committee chairman Jagdeep Singh Deo, who was also present there, said that since July 5 to Aug 11, a total of 27,235 screenings had been conducted.
“The PSC-19 in Padang Kota is the 34th location.
“Although vaccinated, people should get themselves screened. We have been hearing news that many kinds of variants are currently present in the community,” Jagdeep said.
On a separate matter, Chow said the 917,220 doses of Covid-19 vaccines that were guaranteed for the state, would be delivered on a weekly basis.
It was learnt that the first week which was from Aug 1 to 8, a total of 188,875 doses were delivered. Meanwhile, for the second week (Aug 9 to 15), 236,200 are expected to be received.
Consecutively, for week 3 (Aug 16 to 22) and 4 (Aug 23 to 31), 163,800 and 328,345 doses are expected to arrive.
“It is clearly understood that the supplies are largely dependent on international delivery. So far, this the schedule we have received.
“While this is the scenario for now, the plan to distribute the vaccines to all the Covid-19 vaccination centres (PPVs) must be done carefully to meet their demands,” he added.
In a related development, Chow briefly mentioned that several private companies with on-site PPVs that are part of the Public-Private Partnership Industrial Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (Pikas) and private hospitals, would face delays in the delivery of the Pfizer (Covid-19 vaccine) due to some issues experienced abroad.
“Because of this, the involved companies and hospitals would need to reschedule their appointment dates. This issue is being looked at and it will not take too long,” Chow added.
He also added that although the state had previously requested for a higher number of doses (1.2 million), the informed figure would still be possible for the state to achieve its target of inoculating as many people as possible.
The targets include inoculating 100% of our adult population with the first dose by early September and 40% with their second dose in August.
“Public can check out the latest Covid-19 registration and vaccination statistics on Facebook under the Special Committee on Covid-19 Vaccine Supply (JKJAV) page,” Chow added.
On another matter, he said that individuals with disabilities, pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, will soon be allowed to walk in and get their vaccines at PPVs designated with ‘walk-in’ service.
“The state Health Department, in the near future, will provide more details. This will most likely happen when the vaccine supplies for Week Three arrives,” he added.
Story by Kevin Vimal
Pix by Chan Kok Kuan
Video by Noor Siti Nabilah Noorazis