Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow had promptly confirmed that the Selangor Menteri Besar Amirudin bin Shari had not only agreed to allow Penang to borrow 200,000 doses of Sinovac vaccines from Selangor to meet the shortages caused by the disruption of Pfizer supplies but will also be donating 20,000 doses to Penang. This follows my statement questioning the Penang state EXCO for Health’s failure to disclose that Selangor will be donating 20,000 doses of vaccine, which will apparently be done personally by Amirudin when he visits Penang next week.
I had discussed with the Selangor Menteri Besar at a private meeting on 23 August 2021 and Amiruddin had proposed to donate 20,000 doses to Penang. No mention was made then of Penang borrowing 200,000 doses because this was a decision that could only be made by the COVID-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF).
CITF will then return the 200,000 borrowed vaccines to Selangor at a later date when reliable vaccine supply is restored. The 20,000 vaccines donated by Selangor has a current market cost of RM3.5 million and I wish to thank Amiruddin for his fraternal contribution to Penang.
Indeed the decision by Amiruddin to purchase 1.25 million doses of vaccines is proven to be the correct one with the current problems caused by supply disruption. Klang Valley has a full vaccination rate of 88.7% of the adult population. Even the Kelantan Menteri Besar has openly announced his intention to purchase vaccines for Kelantan recently.
This disruption in vaccine supply has caused havoc in the vaccination programme where Penang has dropped from 6th to 7th in Malaysia in terms of full vaccination of the adult population. Melaka has now surpassed Penang with 54.7% as compared to Penang’s 53.1% of the adult population receiving the full two doses on 27 August. On 27 August, only 24,318 doses were delivered in Penang, well below the target of at least 30,000 daily doses achieved last month.
Penang recorded the highest number of deaths at 38 on 27 August and the surge of infections in Penang continues to rise unabated. There is an urgent need to ramp up vaccination as one of the most effective measures to mitigate the effects of COVID-19. Even though the National Immunisation Programme or PICK is under the Federal government, Penangites are unhappy at the slow vaccination rate and are beginning to blame the state government. The Penang Health EXCO must work harder to prevent delays in vaccination which can lead to higher risk exposure to loss of life.
As a start, the 20,000 donated vaccines from Selangor should be utilised immediately to workers of all hawkers and business establishments in Penang to speed up the reopening of the economy. The Penang State EXCO should do her job to make sure this is done in the shortest possible time to save lives and livelihoods.