The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme is implemented in three phases starting from February 24, with the first phase from February to April 2021 for the front liners involving 500,000 people. The second phase, from April to August, will involve senior citizens aged 65 and above, the high-risk groups, and the disabled involving some 9.4 million people, while the third phase will start from May this year to February 2022, covering both Malaysians and non-citizens aged 18 and above, targeting more than 13.7 million people.
According to the Coordinating Minister for National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme Khairy Jamaluddin, the first batch of 312,390 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine safely arrived in Malaysia through the national entry points at KLIA in Sepang; Johor and Penang on February 21. Malaysia also received its second batch of 182,520 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on February 24 for distribution to states that have yet to receive the vaccine. Furthermore, Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah were among the first to receive the Covid-19 vaccine.
As with all COVID-19 vaccines, health workers at high risk of exposure and older people should be prioritized for vaccination. As more vaccines become available, additional priority groups should be vaccinated, with attention to people disproportionately affected by COVID-19 or who face health inequities. Meanwhile, Khairy said that a total of 55,539 teachers, categorised as high risk, will be considered to receive vaccine shots in the first phase of the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme.
