All preparations complete to receive Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine when it arrives in mid-Feb

Aaron (middle) speaking at a press conference at Bintulu Hospital today.

BINTULU (Jan 30): Preparations have been made to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine, scheduled to arrive in mid-February according to the national vaccination plan for distribution to clinics and hospitals nationwide, said Deputy Health Minister Datuk Aaron Ago Dagang.

Aaron said in preparation, training for health personnel on how to handle the vaccine will run from Feb 2 to Feb 5.

He said the government had applied for six types of vaccines but will only be receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine at the moment.

“Pfizer has been tested for its effectiveness. Singapore, Europe and the United States had started their vaccinations using Pfizer. Pfizer is a product from the United States, manufactured in Belgium,” he said at a press conference before witnessing the Covid-19 Vaccine Delivery Dry Run at Bintulu Hospital today.

He said Malaysia could not receive 12.8 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine at once but in stages because countries around the world were applying the same vaccines.

He also said that the vaccine must be approved by the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA) of the Ministry of Health.

“Only registered vaccines will be accepted in Malaysia and after that approval from NPRA is needed for each group. Malaysians have nothing to worry about, as all the products that we will be receiving has already been registered,” he said.

He said according to the plan, the priority for the vaccination will go to the first group which are the frontliners in the Ministry of Health, military, and police which consist of about 500,000 doses of the vaccine and the second group, which consist of high-risk individuals.

“The third group are members of the public aged 18 and above. Vaccines will not be given to those below 18-years-old,” he said, adding that RM3 billion worth of funds had already been allocated for the vaccinations.

On the Covid-19 Vaccine Delivery Dry Run, he said the government used the slowest delivery method which is by road from Kuching.

“Basically, we can transport it by air, but we decided to use road transportation for our dry run so we can monitor and ensure that there were no weaknesses in this process and outcome,” he said.

He said that the vaccines will be delivered by the suppliers.

“Yesterday, we can see that they (suppliers) went to Belaga according to the agreement to ensure that the vaccine would reach the destination in perfect condition as desired,” he said.

He said according to the agreement between the government and Pfizer-BioNTech, the delivery process will be done by the company and they would choose their preferred delivery company.

“So, the government’s responsibility only starts when the vaccine reaches the government facilities. This is part of the terms in our agreement, that is why we need to do this dry run,” he said.

He further explained that Belaga was chosen as the location for the dry run as it is considered the farthest place in the interior in Sarawak.

He said there will be no more dry run exercises at rural areas after this.

“The important thing is that the vaccine arrived at the at a required temperature of negative 75 degree Celsius. Yesterday, it reached negative 90 degree Celsius. We had succeeded and this is what we want to know,” he said.

He also said that the government is in the process of acquiring top-loading freezer.

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