KUANTAN: There are 42,875 teenagers aged 16 - 17 in Pahang who are scheduled to receive at least one Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine dose by Sept 30.
State Health director Datuk Dr Nor Azimi Yunus said they were among the first group of teenagers below 18 who began receiving their vaccines across Pahang starting today.
"The focus is to inoculate those between 16 and 17 and the vaccines will be administered at 22 existing vaccination centres (PPV), 44 PPVs at schools and four health clinics at 11 districts in Pahang. Everything has been arranged according to schedule and we expect to complete the programme by the end of the month.
"To date, the health department has not received any reports about teenagers refusing the vaccines. Parents should allow their children to be vaccinated and counselling services will be provided for parents who do not allow their children to be vaccinated," she said, adding that 7,015 teenagers in Pahang would receive their vaccine doses on the first day of the programme today.
Dr Nor Azimi, who was met after her visit to the Wisma Belia Indera Mahkota PPV today, said once teenagers between 16 and 17 had completed their vaccination, then the programme would be expanded to other age groups under the same category.
She also said the Covid-19 vaccination exercise for teenagers in Pahang would involve about 173,000 of those aged between 12 and 17 years old.
"Some 136,000 are students registered under the state Education Department, Pahang Islamic Religious Department, private schools, tahfiz centres and education institutions under Mara (Majlis Amanah Rakyat). The remaining 37,000 teenagers include the disabled, those in rehabilitation centres and school dropouts.
"For teenagers studying outside Pahang but are currently living here, they can walk-in to PPVs at their respective districts which offer such facilities. For example, in Kuantan, the PPV at the Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah Silver Jubilee Hall here offers walk-ins for teenagers," she said, assuring that the health department aimed at ensuring all teenagers would have access to the Covid-19 vaccines.
Dr Nor Azimi also said the administration of vaccines to teenagers aged between 12 and 15 who had health issues had begun on Sept 15 at five major hospitals in Pahang.
"Since the teenagers have been seeking treatment at the hospitals under the supervision of a specialist, it is best that they get the vaccination at the respective hospitals in case they require further observation.
"To date, 183 students with high-risk diseases have been vaccinated and this is an ongoing exercise. The five hospitals are Tengku Ampuan Afzan Hospital (Kuantan), Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah Hospital (Temerloh), Pekan Hospital, Lipis Hospital and Bentong Hospital."
On a separate matter, Dr Nor Azimi said there were still some 184,000 people who had yet to register for vaccination via the MySejahtera application and the department had expanded its outreach programmes to ensure those eligible for vaccination could complete their doses.