Covid-19: Seven private hospitals in Johor to administer vaccines from June

JOHOR BARU: Seven private hospitals in Johor will start administering vaccines under the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme starting next month, says state Health and Environment Committee chairman R. Vidyananthan.

Vidyananthan said that the seven vaccine distribution centres would begin operating on June 1.

"The seven private hospitals include four in Johor Baru and one each in Kluang, Batu Pahat and Muar.

"These will be administering between 250 to 1,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccine a week," he said in a statement here on Friday (May 28).

He added that six general practitioner vaccine distribution centres have been administering Covid-19 vaccines in Johor since May 5, five in Johor Baru and one in Batu Pahat.

"On June 1, the number of private clinics involved in the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme will increase to 43.

"Each of these clinics will provide 36 to 90 doses of Covid-19 vaccine a week, depending on their respective capacities," he said.

He noted that the Health Ministry's ProtectHealth Corporation had been appointed as the executor for private healthcare facilities participation in the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme.

"However, private health practitioners are not allowed to attain a name list of vaccine recipients nor are they allowed to advertise about it on any social media or messaging application such as WhatsApp.

"This may cause confusion and misunderstanding among the public," he added.

On the Covid-19 situation in Johor, Vidyananthan said that there were a total of 96 active clusters as of Thursday (May 27).

"A total of 549 new cases were reported in Johor on Thursday (May 27), where 64 cases or 12% are from active clusters.

"This brings the total cumulative number of Covid-19 cases in the state to 56,231 where 50,737 cases or 90% have recovered, 5,248 are active cases and 246 deaths," he said.