GEORGE TOWN, Aug 16 — The postponement of vaccination dates in several vaccination administration centres (PPVs) in Penang only involved the second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, said Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow.
He said the shortage of the Pfizer vaccine for the second week of August meant that appointments for second dose vaccinations involving several PPVs had to be postponed to after August 22.
“This postponement will not affect the daily operations of the PPV administering the first dose of the vaccine,” he stressed in a statement today.
He said the PPVs involved are the Balik Pulau Sports Complex, Dewan Balai Rakyat Bayan Baru, Penang Pesta Site, Dewan Millennium in Kepala Batas, Universiti Sains Malaysia main campus and SP Arena.
As for the 58 private clinics and 10 private hospitals operating as PPVs, the administration of the second dose of Pfizer vaccines is scheduled for the week after August 22.
He said all parties involved were given early notice by the state health department and the vaccine recipients were informed of the new appointment dates individually through their respective MySejahtera app.
Chow said Penang is scheduled to receive 368,550 doses of the Pfizer vaccine in August in which 87,750 doses will arrive in the first week; 58,500 will arrive in the second week; 93,600 doses will arrive in the third week, and 128,700 doses in the fourth week.
“The state government looks at this delay seriously and stressed that the ministry involved must take immediate measures to ensure this does not happen again,” he said.
He said the state government has stressed this before that the distribution and delivery of vaccine supplies must be balanced so that it does not cause any disruptions to the vaccination programme.
Chow believes that Penang can still achieve its target of 100 per cent adult population in the state receiving their first dose of the vaccine by early September or even before that.
