State health exco Norlela Ariffin says Penang will be receiving an additional 200,000 doses of the Covid-19 vaccines from Selangor. — Picture by Sayuti Zainudin
GEORGE TOWN, Aug 26 ― Penang will be receiving an additional 200,000 doses of the Covid-19 vaccines from Selangor, state health exco Norlela Ariffin announced today.
She said that the Selangor Mentri Besar had approved Penang’s request to borrow the 200,000 doses of vaccines so that the remaining 225,226 registered adults in Penang will finally receive their first dose by the final week of August.
She said she had conveyed this news to the state exco meeting yesterday and expressed her gratitude to the Selangor Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari, Selangor health exco Dr Siti Mariah Mahmud, political secretary to the mentri besar Juwairiya Zulkifli and Selcare.
She added that she had a meeting with Selcare yesterday to discuss the vaccine packages and vaccine delivery.
“I was assured that they can deliver the vaccines even on the same day,” she said in a statement today.
She said the Covid-19 vaccination centre (PPV) capacity in Penang is 47,000 doses per day.
She said the Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF) has approved the state’s application to CITF to return the borrowed vaccines to Selangor as most of the 300,000 doses that was supposed to arrive in week four of August from CITF was for second dose and not first dose.
She said there is a need to dispense the first dose to the remaining of the registered adult population in Penang as soon as possible.
“Central Seberang Perai (SPT), which is the epicentre of the spike in Covid-19 cases in Penang has 76,000 people yet to receive the first dose and 75,000 to 80,000 factory workers, mostly small factories in SPT that have registered with PIKAS under Miti have not been vaccinated either,” she said.
She said 70 per cent of the Covid-19 infections in Penang since the movement control order 3.0 in 2021 is from the workplace, mainly the factories.
She said even though the number of Covid-19 cases are high, up to 2,500 cases, 98 per cent of the cases were with mild symptoms or no symptoms.
“The number of category five cases with serious infection requiring hospital care has risen to 21 cases on August 24,” she said.
As preventive measures for the 8,000 people on home quarantine from moving up to more serious categories, she said a Covid-19 Emergency Response Team was set up to speed up responses to calls for assistance.
She said the team was set up with the head of the High Risk Patient Quarantine and Treatment Centre (PKRC) at Caring Society Complex where there are oxygen facilities for category three and four cases.
“We have started training 24 volunteers yesterday at Dewan Pintar Taman Guar Perahu in Penanti too,” she said.
Norlela said she has proposed to the Covid-19 management committee to set up a common private PKRC that will be monitored by general practitioners and private home surveillance orders to reduce the burden on the state health department.
She said factories can quarantine their workers, especially the SPT, in private PKRC to reduce the spread of the Covid-19 infections among the community.
“This will reduce our R-naught of positive persons infecting other people in their houses, dormitories and community,” she said.