KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 24 — The Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah, today expressed his appreciation to the government and all related agencies in the vaccine rollout today, via the National Immunisation Programme (NIP).
In a statement today, the Comptroller of the Royal Household Datuk Ahmad Fadil Shamsuddin said that the King also expressed his gratitude to frontliners, for their dedication to fighting the Covid-19 pandemic.
“With regards to the latest development on Covid-19, the Agong takes this opportunity to express his appreciation to the government, especially the Ministry of Health (MOH) and Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry, as well as related government agencies, on the efforts to realise the Covid-19 National Immunisation Programme which began today and is expected to take several months.
“The Agong expresses utmost appreciation to frontliner heroes and heroines on their sacrifices which were made regardless of time and fatigue, in combating the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The Agong also calls upon the rakyat to join His Majesty in prayers that the nation is always protected and will be freed from this pandemic immediately,” the statement read.
Earlier today, Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin became the first Malaysian citizen to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine, marking the first shot in the arm of the massive National Immunisation Programme (NIP) that begins today.
Muhyiddin received his first dose at the Precinct 11 District Health office in Putrajaya that has also been designated as one of the 532 vaccination centres nationwide.
Health Director-General Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah was also among other frontline personnel who received their shots today.
To recap, the vaccines will be administered in three phases. The government aims to prioritise its first batch of 500,000 vaccines for frontliners, especially in healthcare, police, Rela, Bomba and civil defence sectors. This will be carried out until April 2021. To boost confidence in the vaccine, Khairy earlier confirmed that the prime minister would be the first recipient of the national Covid-19 vaccination programme.
The second phase, which covers 9.4 million people, will include senior citizens above 60, people with non-communicable diseases and people with disabilities. The second vaccination phase is expected to run from April to August 2021.
For the remaining individuals including all adults aged 18 years and above, their vaccination will be in phase three that will run from May 2021 to February 2022.
