KOTA KINABALU: The government is mulling a deadline for Malaysians to register for the Covid-19 vaccination programme.
Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said that the registration for the inoculation cannot remain open indefinitely as the Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force had to undertake detailed planning for the mass inoculation.
"We need to set a deadline, for example, the registration period will close at the end of June, those who do not register will not get their injections.
"This will make the Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force plan who to give the jab to, when and where," he said, during a townhall session on Shared Prosperity Vision at the state Administrative Centre here, today.
Muhyiddin was responding to a question by a member of the audience on the Prime Minister's vaccination experience after receiving two doses of Pfizer-bioNtech vaccine as well as on the vaccination programme.
To date, there were already 6 million people registered for the vaccination programme via the MySejahtera application.
Despite a target of 80 per cent of the Malaysian population being immunised, Muhyiddin said the government had committed an additional 20 per cent of the required vaccine supply for specific groups and non-citizens.
As for his experience, Muhyiddin said there were no extraordinary side effects from both doses received despite him being a three-year cancer survivor and having undergone chemotherapy.
"Do not worry and I hope the people of Sabah will register (for the vaccination)."
Meanwhile, at the Covid-19 vaccination centre operating at the Federal Administrative Complex here, Sabah Health director Datuk Dr Christina Rundi said Sabah has its ways of getting people to be vaccinated apart from utilising the MySejahtera app.
She was commenting on the low number of registration among the people of Sabah, which so far only saw 9 per cent of the total population or 262,000 in the state registered for the inoculation.
"We do have online registration via the app and also manually, we are not dependent on MySejahtera as we do have lists and departments to sort it out," she told reporters after Muhyiddin's visit to the centre.
Dr Christina added that today marked the last day of the first phase to inoculate 42,117 frontliners in Sabah.
Starting April, the second phase will kick-off for 268,000 people with health risks and those above 60-year-old.
Unlike the first phase where vaccination recipients would come to designated centres, she said the next phase would see the involvement of more mobile teams to reach out to the community.
"We are thankful to the police for their aid in ensuring the vaccine supply (transport), especially the sensitive Pfizer, to the districts as well as to ensure those supplies are safe in terms of cold chain management to prevent wastage.
"On when the state will reach herd immunity, it would depend on the availability of vaccines," she said.