Khairy: Ministry monitoring allegations of Covid-19 vaccine queue-jumping

PETALING JAYA: Khairy Jamaluddin says his team has been monitoring social media comments by alleged whistleblowers who claim there are individuals who have jumped the queue for Covid-19 vaccinations.

The Science, Technology and Innovation Minister said that these comments are immediately shared with Health deputy director-general Datuk Dr Chong Chee Kheong for investigation.

"We take every exposé seriously. Vaccine equity is important," he said in a tweet on Sunday (Feb 28).

Khairy is also the coordinating minister for the National Covid-19 Immunisation programme.

Khairy added that that elected representatives were included in the first phase of the vaccination programme.

“The only thing is VVIPs who are not elected representatives also want to get on the list. Not possible. And as for elected representatives, I am asking them to take it in stages. There are some states that want all the exco to be given the vaccine in one shot. Not good, ” he said in a another tweet.

He was responding to Twitter user Dr Rafidah Abdullah, who said that she had received many messages on queue jumping for the vaccine.

"We need to ensure distributive justice and instil trust in our national immunisation programme.

"Perhaps MOSTI YB @Khairykj can consider having an independent channel for people to file complaints and ensure repercussions for queue jumpers," said Dr Rafidah, who works with the Health Ministry.

The country kicked off its mass vaccination programme on Wednesday (Feb 24), with Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin the first to be vaccinated.

There are three phases to the immunisation programme, with frontliners being vaccinated in the first phase from February to April.

The second phase runs from April to August this year, with high-risk groups and senior citizens aged 60 and above being vaccinated.

The rest of the Malaysian population aged 18 years and above will be vaccinated in the third phase, which is from May 2021 to February 2022.

Khairy added that as of 6.30pm Sunday, a total of 15,923 have received the vaccine, with 1,428,719 people registering to receive it through the MySejahtera application.