Property firm offers country club site as Negri’s first Pikas centre

Azmin (front left) visiting the vaccination centre with Ho (right).

A PROPERTY developer has allowed the authorities to use a ballroom at a country club for free to show its support for the Public-Private Partnership Covid-19 Industry Immunisation Programme (Pikas).

Matrix Concepts Holdings Bhd, the developer of Bandar Sri Sendayan, has not only offered the d’Tempat Country Club located in the township near Seremban, but will also provide meals to some 60 personnel manning the centre for the duration of the programme which starts on July 5.

The company’s managing director Ho Kong Soon said the venue — the first designated centre in the state under Pikas — could accommodate 1,500 people a day.

“We at Matrix Concepts fully support the government’s Covid-19 initiatives as well as Pikas so that we can achieve the 80% herd immunity faster.

“We strongly believe that the private sector must work together with the government in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic as we race to reopen and stabilise the economy,” he said during a visit to the centre by International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali.

The Pikas programme at the d’Tempat Country Club is scheduled to run for two months.

Ho said the company was happy to be able to play its part as a responsible corporate citizen and assist the community and the nation in whatever way it could.

“It is also our hope that this immunisation programme can be quickly extended to other necessary and critical sectors such as construction.

“This is important as the livelihoods of many have been affected because of the pandemic,” he said.

Ho said the Pikas centre at the country club would operate from 9am to 8pm on weekdays and 9am to 5pm on weekends.

Azmin, when met later, said some 1.99 million doses of vaccine were needed to inoculate workers in the manufacturing sector under the Pikas programme from July to September.

He said 600,000 doses of vaccine would be required in July, another 600,000 doses in August and 795,000 doses in September.

The programme, he said, would be carried out at 49 designated industry vaccination centres (PPVs) nationwide.

“We expect to complete the whole exercise by the end of September to achieve the immunisation target in the manufacturing sector.

“Manufacturing is an important sector because it is part of the backbone of our economy, and we are at a stage where we need to accelerate economic recovery,” he added.

Azmin said about 2.25 million workers in the manufacturing sector were targeted to be vaccinated under Pikas.