KUALA LUMPUR,Feb 9 — After attending a briefing on the country’s Covid-19 Immunisation Programme, PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang has today offered himself to be among the first to be inoculated with the vaccine.
In a Facebook post, the 73-year-old politician suggested he was swayed into making the decision after being briefed on the importance of being inoculated and its role in the pursuit to achieve herd immunity and natural resistance against the disease.
“Because of that, I would like to state my readiness to be one of the early recipients to be injected with the Covid-19 vaccine, together with Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, as a sign of support towards the government’s efforts in curbing the pandemic,” he wrote.
The Islamist party president, who is also serving as a special envoy to the Middle East, then called on all Malaysians to remain united and set aside all political differences in the fight against Covid-19.
“Our main focus now is to make sure the safety of the people is assured and for the economy to recover,” the Marang MP added.
The country’s vaccination programme is set to begin once the first batch of vaccines arrive here later this month.
Shipments of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines were supposed to arrive on February 26, but Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba on Friday announced it would be arriving a week earlier without giving a specific date.
On January 11, the agreement for the delivery of the first phase of the Covid-19 Pfizer-BioNTech BNT1262b to the entire country was signed between the Malaysian government, through the Health Ministry, and Pfizer (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd.
The agreement with Pfizer (Malaysia) involves the procurement of 12,799,800 doses of vaccine, sufficient to cover 20 per cent of Malaysia’s population, with two doses per person.
Dr Adham had said the vaccine would be received in phases, with 148,000 doses for the first phase, adding how 55 vaccination storage locations throughout the country equipped with ultra-low temperature freezers (ULTF) required to store the vaccine at -70 degrees Celsius had been identified by his ministry.
