Klang Valley a success, focus now turns to other states

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s focus now is to distribute Covid-19 vaccines to all states and ramp up their pandemic control by Merdeka Day.

Khairy Jamaluddin said this was following the success of Operation Surge Capacity, which saw 97% of the population in the Klang Valley, the epicentre of the Covid-19 pandemic in the country, getting vaccinated.

The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme coordinating minister said the Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF) would now focus on vaccine distribution to all states nationwide based on two factors.

“We will send vaccines to states that see an increase in positive cases, and also states with low vaccination rates – just like what we did for Labuan and the Klang Valley earlier.

“This is so that by the end of August, they can catch up with the other states,” said Khairy at the weekly CITF press conference yesterday.

He added that the epidemic in Malaysia may reach its peak in a week, and hoped that there would be a turning point afterwards.

“I think we are at the peak. As far as the Klang Valley is concerned, we may reach the peak in a week or so, and we hope there will be an inflection point from there,” he added.

Khairy noted that the ultimate aim would be to have at least 40% of the adult population in all states receiving two doses of the vaccine by Merdeka Day.

According to data from the CITF, 96.7% of the adult population in the Klang Valley have received at least a dose of the vaccine, while 37.5% had received two doses.

Under the operation, which ended on Sunday, 1,655,217 appointments for vaccinations were given between July 26 and Aug 1.

“The operation was a success. We will vaccinate the remaining 3% within the first week of August.

“They are probably those who have cancelled or could not make it to their previous appointment,” he said, adding that the task force would work on “mopping up” the outliers and let those who had not registered or had cancelled their appointments get jabbed.

“The mop-up in the Klang Valley will be done through two ways – walk-in at the stipulated PPV or through the scheduled mobile outreach programme in the outskirts.

“Other than focusing on senior citizens and those with comorbidities, we will also separate the vaccination for citizens and foreigners to enable better crowd control based on experience at several PPV in the last week,” he said.

Operation Surge Capacity was announced on July 16. It was aimed at vaccinating all 6.1 million adults in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor with at least one vaccination dose by Aug 1.

Khairy also noted that the walk-in vaccination initiative for senior citizens would be expanded nationwide from next week.

At the moment, it is only open to unvaccinated senior citizens in the Klang Valley, but will be rolled out in all states from next week.

Some states have begun accepting walk-ins for senior citizens, while others are ready for it.

“We leave it to the states to announce the dates and other details,” said Khairy.

He said that for the Klang Valley, only senior citizens were allowed to walk into any PPV for now, while others had to follow the stipulated criteria and time.

He said walk-in vaccinations at the nine PPV in the Klang Valley were meant for those living here.

“This is based on the target and the need to protect the residents who are at the epicentre of the pandemic now.

“This initiative is limited to the administration of the first dose. Those getting their second dose will get it according to the stipulated gap (for each vaccine),” he said.

Malaysians aged 40 and above and locals with comorbidities can get their jabs at any of the PPV involved until tomorrow.

From Thursday to Aug 22, the walk-in exercise will be expanded to all Malaysians aged above 18 in the Klang Valley.

Foreigners who are also divided into those two categories can get their jabs from Aug 9-11 and Aug 12-22.