Covid-19: Chief minister confident Penang will see 100pc first dose for adults by Sept

GEORGE TOWN, Aug 12 ― Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow is confident that 100 per cent of the adult population in the state who have registered for Covid-19 vaccination will have received at least the first dose by early September.

He said that 67 per cent of the registered adult population in the state have already received their first dose as of yesterday.

“Our target is to achieve 40 per cent of the adults who have received their second dose by the end of August but I believe we can hit 50 per cent by then,” he told reporters this morning after visiting a mass screening programme at Taman Manggis here.

He said Penang will have 917,200 doses of vaccine for August, which will arrive in batches each week.

He said 188,875 doses were scheduled for the first week of this month, 236,200 doses in the second week, 163,800 doses in the third week and 328,345 in the fourth week.

Chow said the state had requested for 1.2 million doses for August but was originally allocated only 70,400 and now the 917,200 doses to be given will still suffice for Penang to meet its target.

He also explained the delays in the dispensing of the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine in some of the Covid-19 vaccination centres (PPV) in the state, attributing it to delays in supplies at the international level.

“The dispensing of the second dose at a few PPV has to be rescheduled but this is only a temporary phenomenon,” he said.

He said this will be resolved over the next few days or next week.

Chow said the state will also be opening up walk-in vaccination for the disabled, pregnant mothers and breastfeeding mothers.

“The walk-in vaccination for senior citizens have slowed down as most senior citizens have already received their vaccination so we will move on to this next category,” he said.

He said the PPVs designated for the walk-in vaccination will be announced once the state receives its supplies in the third week of August.