Covid-19: Reopening of borders to be announced by PM, says Khairy

PUTRAJAYA: An announcement on the reopening of the country’s borders would be made by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, says Minister of Health Khairy Jamaluddin (pic).

He said the government already had a suitable date for the reopening of the national borders.

"The prime minister will announce the date, we already have a date and we will leave it to the prime minister to announce it," he said at a news conference on Covid-19 developments, here, on Thursday (Feb 24).

Last Tuesday (Feb 22), National Recovery Council chairman, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin reportedly said that the Health Ministry was preparing and fine-tuning the standard operating procedure (SOP) pertaining to the reopening of the country’s borders.

On another development, Khairy said the Health Ministry had received proposals from the Pharmaceutical Services Division to contribute (to other countries), Covid-19 vaccines which would expire after some months if they were not used.

On a news portal’s claim that Malaysia might have to dump almost half a million doses of the AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-19 vaccine which would expire this May, Khairy reiterated his statement that the Health Ministry had never disposed of vaccines as all would be used before the expiry dates.

"Through the Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF), I receive information weekly on the vaccine stocks including the expiry date for every brand of vaccine available," he said.

If necessary, he said the ministry would contribute vaccines to other countries like had been made to Bangladesh and Laos.

Khairy together with Wisma Putra would decide which countries would be receiving Malaysia’s contribution. - Bernama