PUTRAJAYA MAR.29: Two million people in the prioritised group including the senior citizens, patients with chronic illnesses and the handicapped had registered with MySejahtera Apps yesterday to be vaccinated in the National COVID-19 Immunization Programme (PICK).
Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI) and also the Coordinating Minister for PICK, Khairy Jamaluddin said, nine million is the targeted number for this group in phase two, but if they are not registering then those registered in phase three will be pushed forward.
However Khairy said, the second phase group will be notified on 19th April 2021 through SMS and phone calls and followed with the dates of appointments.
“The people above 60 years old, handicapped and the co-morbidities upon registration automatically will be on top of the queue. At the moment, several agencies including National Disaster Management Agency (NADMA), Civil Defence Forces (APM), district offices and health workers are doing face-to face campaign to encourage the people to register in the immunization programme,” said Khairy at a press conference held here today on the PICK weekly report.
Khairy said, the health care workers and the doctors both in the public and private hospitals are also helping in advising patients to register with PICK.
Regarding the people who prefer to be vaccinated in the private hospitals and clinics, Khairy said, the patients cannot expect to be vaccinated early as the supply could only be available in the third and fourth quarter of the year.
“The parties negotiating could only get the supply in six months time as there is a global shortage in COVID-19 vaccines. Private hospitals will not get their supply immediately while the government will only get the additional supply via the scheduled delivery dates,” Khairy said.
Asked on the possibility of house to house vaccination system, Khairy said, PICK is based on voluntary and if this system is being carried out, it will scare the people and will not open the door for the vaccinator.
“Unless the patient is bed-ridden then the vaccinator will go to the house to vaccinate. I am confident not many are in this category but majority will go to the vaccination centre to be inoculated,” Khairy added.
With regards to phase one in the immunization programme, Khairy said, 90 percent of 500, 175 front liners have been vaccinated and as of 10 March 2021, the numbers have been increased to 627,398.
“We hope the vaccination process for phase one will be completed in two weeks time and starting from 19th April 2021, the phase two people will be notified further on the vaccination programme.
Meanwhile the states with the highest vaccinations include Selangor with 75,317, Perak (59,305), Sarawak (57,034), Sabah (52,223) and Kuala Lumpur (50,512). –Malaysia World News
