ALMOST 300,000 medical personnel who form the country’s health front liners will be inoculated in the first phase of the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme, said Khairy Jamaluddin.

The Science, Technology and Innovation minister, who is also the coordinating minister for the vaccination programme, said that the government was currently working out the appointments for these front liners.

“The health front liners have been identified… about 300,000 of them have been identified through the Ministry of Health internal database.

“We have reached out to them and we are now working out the appointment management system, so that we can tell them when and where they will have to show up to receive the vaccination,” he said in Putrajaya today.

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is expected to arrive in Malaysian on February 21 and the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme will begin in phases from February 26.

Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin will take the lead by getting vaccinated on February 26 along with several front liners.

The first phase of the immunisation programme involves vaccinating a total of 500,000 medical and non-medical front liners.

Khairy said that following the healthcare front liners, other non-health front liners would next be identified to receive their jabs.

He said a risk-assessment would be done to determine who would receive the vaccines.

“We are now going through the list of those who are not from the health sector, for instance from the immigration, police, armed forces and other essential frontline services.

“We are preparing a risk-assessment framework to ensure that those who receive the vaccine in the first phase are really those who are at risk of being exposed to the virus, in undertaking their duties and job.

“We will be informing them very soon on whether they have been chosen and where and when they will be vaccinated,” he said.

Meanwhile, Khairy today assured that all vaccines procured by the country are safe and efficacious.

He said that due to this, people would not be allowed to choose the vaccine of their preference.

“Whatever vaccines that have been approved by the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA), are safe and efficacious.

“In that sense, you won’t be able to choose your vaccine. You’ll be allotted a time, a place and a date for your appointment, and whatever vaccine is available there, I assure you will be a safe and efficacious vaccine,” he said. – February 17, 2021.