[ad_1]
PUTRAJAYA: Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin received his first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine at Presint 11 Health Clinic here after chairing the cabinet meeting on Wednesday (February 24).
The National Covid-19 Vaccination Program began two days ahead of schedule. It was initially scheduled to roll out on Friday (February 26).
In addition to Muhyiddin, Health Director General Tan Sri, Dr. Noor Hisham Abdullah, and four other staff from the Ministry of Health also received the vaccine.
The Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Khairy Jamaluddin, had said that the first batch of 312,390 Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines would be administered to 271,802 front-line people, of which 57.3% would be made up of medical personnel and the rest by non-medical first line.
He said the first batch of vaccines will be distributed to 16 vaccine storage centers: four in Johor, two in Penang, six in Selangor, three in Kuala Lumpur and one in Putrajaya.
Khairy also said that the government would continue its two-dose policy under the immunization program, although a study showed that a single dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was up to 85% effective against the virus.
The program will involve the immunization of 80% of the population in three phases, starting with the first line from now until April.
The second phase is from April to August and includes people aged 65 years and over, high-risk groups and people with disabilities, while the third phase from May to February 2022 is for adults 18 years of age or older.
[ad_2]
