Khairy disputes Selangor vaccine shortage claim, state still has over 320,000 doses in reserve

National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme coordinating minister Khairy Jamaluddin has dispelled claims that Selangor lacked COVID-19 vaccines to last a week at current usage, after a state official alleged online that some of its vaccination centres (PPV) would run dry in days unless urgently replenished.

Khairy was responding to the claims that Selangor Public Health, Unity, Women and Family Development Committee chairman Dr Siti Mariah Mahmud made yesterday.

According to data obtained from the national COVID-19 Immunisation Task Force, Khairy said Selangor received a total of 1,367,306 vaccine doses — comprising Pfizer-BioNtech, Sinovac and AstraZeneca — on June 27 and still has a total of 322,606 vaccines in reserve.

“So there is a vaccine utilisation rate of 76 per cent by Selangor. That is why I asked the state to expedite the utilisation of vaccines. 

“Therefore the allegations by YB exco that vaccines were not delivered is untrue. Vaccines are indeed delivered to them and there is a reserve as well,” he said during a press conference after officiating the new Tanjong Karang COVID-19 vaccination centre.

This comes after Dr Siti alleged on Twitter that some PPVs in Selangor will be forced to stop operations in “days” unless their supply of COVID-19 vaccines were urgently replenished.

She later added that Selangor has 87,616 doses in hand while it was dispensing an average of 50,000 for those getting their first dose and 20,000 as second doses each day.

Khairy said vaccines are delivered to respective states based on their daily administering capacity, pointing out that Selangor has a capacity of 40,000 vaccinations daily for June as affirmed by the Selangor Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari during a meeting held between them two weeks ago.

“I had a meeting with the MB himself and it was at that time the Selangor government themselves said that the capacity for June is 40,000 jabs daily. So I am not sure, the health exco was not present during our meeting.

“So we provide supplies according to their capacity. I am not sure where the exco obtained her figures of 87,000 from. The issue of vaccines not being delivered or insufficient is definitely untrue,” he added.

He also revealed that Selangor — with its 76 per cent vaccine utilisation rate — was the only state in the country having a less than 80 per cent utilisation rate, with the highest being Melaka at 94 per cent.

On that matter, Khairy said he hoped Selangor could further increase its daily capacity to 130,000 vaccinations in July as targeted as there were plans to open up more vaccination centres.

Earlier, Khairy said the opening of the Tanjong Karang vaccination centre was aimed at shortening the commute time for recipients in the vicinity in getting their vaccination after incumbent MP Tan Sri Noh Omar raised the matter to him.

“Prior to this, they had to travel to Kuala Selangor or Puncak Alam to receive their vaccine,” he said, adding that the centre could administer vaccines for up to 1,000 individuals daily. — Malay Mail

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