The third phase of the National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) in the Klang Valley begins on Monday at the National Stadium vaccination centre (PPV) in Bukit Jalil, said Khairy Jamaluddin, coordinating minister. Khairy Jamaluddin, who is also the Minister of Science, Technology, and Innovation, explained that the phase is moving forward as 99% of senior citizens in the Klang Valley and 88% in Selangor who had registered for vaccination had either received the first dose of the vaccine jab or received their appointment dates.
He said individuals who had registered to get vaccinated from 23 February would get their appointment dates tomorrow for vaccination at the National Stadium PPV.
KJ says that he decided to expedite the phase, rather than wait until 100% of the population had registered. “Any state that has achieved 90% of the first dose of the vaccine jab or those who are registered have received their appointment dates, then we will begin the third phase of the immunisation programme,” he said at a joint press conference with the Finance Minister, Tengku Zafrul Aziz on the National Recovery Plan.
Khairy explained that senior citizens who register after tomorrow’s launch of the third phase in the Klang Valley would still be given priority in the list of vaccine recipients. Ghows Azzam, the science advisor to the minister, stated on Twitter that some states have already started phase 3 because they have already finished up phase 2.
PICK was first unveiled in February and the plan outlined that phase three, which involves those aged 18 and above, would be from May 2021 to February 2022. However, KJ announced in May that the third phase would be delayed due to a low supply of vaccines.
Phase three will use the vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech, Sinovac, and AstraZeneca; the latter having been reincorporated into the mainstream vaccination programme. Further, the CanSinoBio and Janssen vaccines have been given conditional approval by the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency but for now, the one-dose jabs are limited only to rural areas.
(Sources: Malay Mail, NST, Ghows Azzam / Twitter. Images: Faihan Ghani / The Star, BERNAMA via mStar)
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