PENANG has managed to achieve its target of injecting 10,000 Covid-19 vaccine doses per day.
Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow shared the good news today while setting the state’s new target at 20,000 jabs daily.
“As of June 7, we have the capacity to inject 10,204 doses daily,” he said.
Chow gave a breakdown of the figures.
“The various vaccination centres (PPVs) at public facilities in Penang are able to inject some 6,560 doses daily.
“The mega PPV in Setia SPICE Arena is able to administer up to 3,000 doses per day,” he said.
Meanwhile, seven private hospitals in Penang have stepped forward to be PPVs and participated in the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme. Three of them have started administering vaccines. The remaining four private hospitals are expected to start vaccinating the eligible recipients soon.
“The private hospitals’ PPVs can administer up to a total of 500 doses daily,” Chow said.
He added that nine out of 51 private clinics in Penang, which are participating in the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme, had also started vaccinating the recipients.
“The rest of the clinics will start vaccinating the recipients soon. The private clinics can inject up to a total of 144 doses daily.
“Our aim is to complete the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme in Penang by the end of October this year.
“We want to achieve the herd immunity by then (80% of the population vaccinated),” he said.
Chow and Penang Tourism and Creative Economy Commitee chairman Yeoh Soon Hin visited the Pantai Hospital Penang today to check out its PPV.
Pantai Hospital Penang is one of the seven private hospitals in Penang that is taking part in the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme.
Its chief executive officer Pan Wen Lek said the hospital felt honoured to be appointed as a PPV.
“Currently, we are given a quota to administer 100 doses per day.
“If everything goes on smoothly, we will apply to ProtectHealth Corporation Sdn Bhd to increase our quota to 200 doses daily,” Pan said.
Pantai Hospital Penang started vaccinating the recipients on June 7, operating on weekdays (9am to 5pm).
It was reported that ProtectHealth is the Health Ministry-appointed implementer of private medical practitioner participation in the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme.
Chow and Yeoh also visited the O2 Klinik at Summerton Complex in Persiaran Bayan Indah.
Chow said with the participation of the private hospitals and private clinics as PPVs, the daily target of 20,000 doses per day in Penang could be achieved.
However, he said if registration from the public was slow, there would come a time when there would be nobody to be vaccinated.
“We have the ability to achieve 20,000 doses per day. In one month you will achieve 600,000. In one-and-a-half months, you will achieve 900,000.
“But today, we have only over 800,000 people in Penang who have registered for vaccination. So, come a time we will have nobody to vaccinate because we will cover everyone already.
“From now onwards, registration is important for us to to cover the 1.3 million to 1.4 million people which is 80 percent of our targeted population.”
Chow added that some clinics may have small premises but if their network of general practitioners is grouped together, it could be substantial in number if they are all added up.
02 Klinik founder and chief executive officer Dr Koay Chun Hang said they have eight branches in Penang – six on the island and two on the mainland – and another two branches in Selangor.
02 Klinik, he said, would be able to inoculate 6,000 recipients per month.
02 Klinik, which started operating as a PPV yesterday, is vaccinating 17 people per day at each branch, operating three times a week.
Dr Koay said from next week, they would be getting 30 recipients per day and they would operate five days, from 1pm to 5pm, a week.
“Although the clinic environment is a little small, we have to control the crowd. The service is free to the public. We want to help the government fasten the vaccination programme. And we hope the pandemic will end soon,” Dr Koay said.
Also present at the clinic were the consultant aesthetic physician Dr Gan Boon Keong, business development manager Koay Chun Yeong and marketing executive Cathy Ooi, and nurses Siti Fatimah Fazil and Nur Shaheera Nordin.
Story by Christopher Tan and K.H. Ong
Pix by Muhamad Amir Irsyad Omar and Ahmad Adil Muhamad