KUALA LUMPUR: Two hundred and thirty-four vaccination centres (PPV) have been set up nationwide in health clinics to administer Covid-19 vaccines and boosters.
Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad said the ministry would update the information periodically should there be any changes in the number of PPVs.
One could either walk into the listed PPVs or schedule an appointment via the MySejahtera application to get inoculated.
"This appointment can be made using the reservation procedure established during the earlier National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme."
The latest statement from the Health Ministry follows on the heels of reports that booster vaccinations were not available at a number of government clinics.
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On Tuesday, it was reported that those seeking to get Covid-19 vaccinations or the booster shots could walk in at any government health clinic or hospital.
Health director-general Datuk Dr Muhammad Radzi Abu Hassan assured that there were enough vaccines, especially for those in high-risk groups, or with comorbidities.
Dr Radzi said the ministry was still procuring the 2.7 million new-generation Covid-19 vaccines.
Following this, checks were made by the New Straits Times (NST) on Tuesday at several government health clinics in the Klang Valley.
The NST learnt that not all government clinics in the Klang Valley were ready to accept patients for Covid-19 vaccination or booster shots.
Most government clinics said there were no vaccination initiatives at the facilities, and they had yet to receive any directive from the ministry.
The list of clinics on MySejahtera was also found to be outdated, as many private clinics and hospitals said they had no longer been part of the vaccination programme for some time now.
In response to this, a Health Ministry senior-ranking officer assured that the supply of the Covid-19 booster shots in the country was sufficient, despite only a few government clinics having the boosters ready at their premises.
He told NST the issue of unavailability arose due to the low uptake of booster shots in the country, previously.
Following this, the booster shots were only made available at government clinics upon request.
"We (the ministry) are very aware of the situation (where some government clinics do not provide booster shots), and there is a large number of people informing us that they are not able to get their booster shots."
The senior officer said it was merely a logistics issue and assured that the ministry was working to rectify it.
"We would just have to deploy the vaccines to klinik kesihatan (government clinics)."
On Tuesday, social media user @ieqalis_ on platform X voiced her frustration when she could not get her jab at the government clinic even though she had successfully made an appointment via MySejahtera.
"All the staff seemed clueless about the vaccination programme when I was there with my appointment. I was informed that there is no vaccine stock."
She questioned how an appointment could be made on MySejahtera when the clinic did not have a vaccine stock.
"Please update the application. Tally the information with whatever services are available."
She further revealed that she had checked with two other government clinics, and was told that the vaccines were currently unavailable.
In response to inquiries about the outdated list on the MySejahtera application and the likelihood of the ministry reintroducing daily updates on Covid-19 statistics, the senior officer told NST that the matter would soon be up for discussion.