The adult population in the Klang Valley will receive at least their first COVID-19 vaccine shot by 1 August, according to the Director-General of Health, Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah. Based on the statistics provided by The Special Committee on COVID-19 Vaccine Supply (JKJAV), around 3.3 million adults in Selangor, Putrajaya, and Kuala Lumpur have received at least one dose up till 11:59 PM yesterday.
In order to achieve that objective, Dr Noor Hisham said that 5 million doses will be administered. The decision to accelerate the vaccination rate in the Klang Valley which has recorded a total of 7,672 cases today was based on the action plan that the government had implemented in Labuan last month.
At that time, the island was badly hit by the Delta variant of the virus which was suspected to originate from shipping industry workers to the extent that there were more than 1,300 cases in just a week. Dr Noor Hisham noted that once the full vaccination rate hits 52%, the number of cases in Labuan had decreased significantly within 3 weeks to the point that the island only has 26 cases today.
Meanwhile, Health Minister Dr Adham Baba has also announced that senior citizens aged 60 years and above in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur will soon be allowed to obtain their vaccine via walk-in at any Vaccination Administration Centres (PPVs). This option will also be implemented in other states too in the near future, although the minister didn’t announce any set timeline during the press conference today.
While it was originally thought that the new directive would take place immediately in Klang Valley, it turns out that the COVID-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF) is actually not ready to put it into action:
Tarikh pelaksanaan vaksinasi walk-in warga emas akan diumumkan nanti.
Orang ramai berusia 60 tahun ke atas yang tidak mempunyai janji temu vaksinasi diminta untuk tidak ke mana-mana PPV esok sehingga maklumat lanjut diumumkan. pic.twitter.com/3jPVuASNxB
— Vaksin COVID-19 🇲🇾 (@JKJAVMY) July 15, 2021
In another related note, Dr Adham also said that the industrial PPVs in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Seremban are now allowed to operate for 24 hours although this is not mandatory. Nevertheless, the authorities hope that this move would help them wrap up the vaccination process in the Greater Klang Valley area as soon as possible.
In general, there has been a lot of talk regarding the country’s vaccination progress today. Aside from these announcements, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin has earlier said that he already asked JKJAV to consider easing down the restrictions on individuals that have completed their vaccination.
(Source: RTM – [timestamp: 3:38 and 11:05] / YouTube. Image: JKJAV / Facebook.)
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