Penang exco calls for more Covid-19 doses as number of those vaccinated remains low

GEORGE TOWN, May 27 — The percentage of people who have received their Covid-19 vaccines in Penang is still low, said state exco Jagdeep Singh Deo.

He said Penang hit a record high number of new Covid-19 cases at 420 yesterday, in tandem with the nationwide tally soaring to 7,478 new cases yesterday.

“This is a very serious matter. The percentage of those vaccinated is too low. We need to speed up the vaccination but we are waiting for supplies,” he said during a press conference after visiting the Perak Road market this morning.

As of May 24, a total of 719,015 people in Penang have registered for the Covid-19 vaccination and only 79,862 have received their doses, which is only 5.8 per cent of those registered.

He said Putrajaya must enhance its process of vaccine delivery as Covid-19 cases are increasing and going out of control.

He expressed his anger over the AstraZeneca online registration fiasco where many had problems accessing the site and couldn't book an appointment.

“It is very unfortunate what happened yesterday, I really hope they will find out what went wrong and correct it, one million doses were taken up within an hour yesterday, there are 30 million more people waiting,” he said.

He said it is time for Putrajaya to move forward, correct its mistakes and address the vaccination issues.

He said the state government is willing to cooperate with the federal government in ensuring the vaccination process is conducted smoothly as long as more vaccine supplies are provided.

Meanwhile, Jagdeep has also requested Putrajaya to consider allowing hawkers and food stalls to start their operations two hours early, at 6am.

“We have received requests from hawkers asking to be allowed to open earlier,” he said.

He said many of these stalls, especially located around morning markets, are suffering and could get more customers if they are allowed to open at 6am instead of the current movement control order (MCO) SOP that limits business hours to between 8am and 8pm.