IPOH: Drive-through vaccination centres (PPV) will be set up in two locations in Perak soon to boost the rate of daily vaccination among the people in the state.
Menteri Besar Datuk Saarani Mohamad said the state National Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force had identified the Indera Mulia Stadium here and the Bulatan Sultan Azlan Shah in Bandar Meru Raya for the drive-through PPV initiative.
"This initiative was started in Kinta as the district has the highest population in Perak. The state government is confident that it will help to increase the estimated rate of vaccination by between 800 and 1,500 a day, besides reducing congestion in the existing PPVs," he said at a virtual press conference today.
He said the drive-through PPV initiative was among several undertaken by the state government to increase the level of preparedness by focusing on vaccinating the people to achieve herd immunity immediately, and it (drive-through PPVs) would also be implemented in other districts in stages.
He said the state government had set a target of 15,000 daily jabs in Perak this month compared to the average of 8,000 daily shots last month, so that the second phase of the immunisation programme could be completed soon and enable the third phase to begin.
Saarani said that since transportation was one of the reasons for vaccine recipients not keeping their appointments, the state government has provided more than 80 types of vehicles to ferry 1,000 people a day to the PPVs.
"This initiative will facilitate and help alleviate the difficulties faced by the public, especially those with transportation difficulties and also persons with disabilities (PwD)," he said.
According to Saarani, a total of 2,270 recipients who need special access services had been vaccinated through the "outreach" programme initiative until June 1 by a mobile team at nursing homes or special care homes, and (the outreach programme) would start carrying out door-to-door vaccinations for the elderly and PwD as well as in rural areas after this.
The state government, he said, had also agreed to implement a targeted RTK Antigen screening test programme according to the locality of the Covid-19 transmission "hotspot" based on the state health department's (JKN) data analysis.
This, he added, would help them identify individuals who are COVID-19 positive but are asymptomatic and at risk of transmitting infections so that early detection and treatment could be carried out.
Saarani said he also welcomed the federal government's decision to allow Pharmaniaga Bhd to supply seven million doses of the Sinovac vaccine to private companies, government-linked companies and state governments.
He said the state government had also asked the Perak State Development Corporation, through its subsidiary Majuperak Holdings Bhd, to directly purchase vaccine supplies from Pharmaniaga.
He also urged people in the state to register for vaccination as, so far, only 889,680 individuals or 46 per cent of the state's 1.86 million population who are eligible to be vaccinated, had received their vaccine jabs. - Bernama