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Khairy tells Selangor to speed up vaccine utilisation, says state still lagging behind

He denies claims by the Selangor health exco that the state has not received enough doses of Covid-19 vaccine.

Staff Writers
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National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme coordinating minister Khairy Jamaluddin. Photo: Bernama
National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme coordinating minister Khairy Jamaluddin. Photo: Bernama

Selangor has not fully utilised the vaccines supplied to the state by Putrajaya, Khairy Jamaluddin said today, responding to a claim that the federal government was withholding Covid-19 vaccine doses.

Khairy, the minister in charge of the national vaccination programme, said Selangor is the only state whose utilisation of vaccines is below 80%.

He denied a claim by Selangor health exco Dr Siti Mariah Mahmud that the state had not been receiving enough doses, saying vaccines had been supplied based on the state’s capacity to deliver the jabs and that Selangor still has stock remaining.

He said yesterday, the state received 1.36 million doses of the Pfizer, Sinovac and AstraZeneca vaccines.

He said of these, only 76% was administered, with a balance of 322,605 doses.

“I urge Selangor to accelerate its rate of vaccination. The accusation that vaccines were not delivered is not true,” he told a press conference today, announcing the opening of a new vaccination centre in Tanjung Karang, Selangor.

Khairy said he was informed by Selangor Menteri Besar Amirudin Shari that the state had a daily vaccine delivery rate of 40,000 for the month of June.

“The health exco did not attend a meeting between me and the menteri besar, during which the state government had said that it could deliver up to 40,000 jabs a day.

“So we supplied them based on that capacity,” said Khairy.

He said during his meeting with Amirudin, it was agreed that the vaccine capacity for Selangor should exceed 100,000 jabs for the month of July.

“We hope Selangor can deliver at least 100,000 jabs every day in July,” he said. “Our maximum target is 130,000 doses per day in Selangor alone.”

He said Melaka had recorded the highest number of vaccine doses utilised at 94%, followed by Terengganu and Negeri Sembilan at 92%.

He said the Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force is pushing for every state to utilise at least 90% of their vaccines in the month to come.