MEGA vaccine distribution centres will be instructed to improve their standard operating procedure (SOP) after concerns of overcrowding were raised, said Khairy Jamaluddin. 

The coordinating minister for the national immunisation programme acknowledged the concerns raised but said that mega centres as well as the smaller ones were adhering to the SOP stipulated. 

“There have been a couple of days where mega centres have seen overcrowding and I have instructed them to continue to enhance (their) SOP and crowd controlling measures to ensure there are no more incidents of overcrowding,” Khairy said at a press at weekly press conference today with Health Minister Dr Adham Baba on inoculation efforts. 

Khairy, who is the science, technology and innovations minister, touched on the issue after former minister Rafidah Aziz said that the government should bring vaccines to the people instead of having them crowd in mega centres. 

She said that vaccination centres should be right-sized and managed at the district level. 

Khairy said he understood the concerns raised by Rafidah but said that using mega centres was part of the national immunisation programme strategy as it has a high throughput, being able to vaccinate between 8,000 and 10,000 people per day. 

However, he said that besides using mega centres, the government was also using other strategies to improve efforts to vaccinate people. 

“The strategy is to use all types of centres – big, small, drive-through, mobile,” he said, adding that the number of general practitioner clinics was also being increased to ramp up the vaccination process. 

Yesterday, Khairy announced that more mega centres would be set up in the Klang Valley to speed up the vaccination process. 

He said three mega centres will be set up in Selangor and two in Kuala Lumpur. 

Meanwhile, Khairy also reiterated that those with vaccination appointments could travel to get their jabs during the 14-day lockdown period. 

He said permission was granted in the list of SOP given by the National Security Council yesterday. 

Besides this, Khairy also reminded the public who registered for the vaccination programme to update their residential address on the MySejahtera application to avoid being sent to centre in other states or distant locations. 

“When someone living in Taman Bahagia, Kuala Lumpur types it out in the app, all the locations named Taman Bahagia will be listed. 

“The user will simply click the first Taman Bahagia they see, and as a result, they’ll be sent to Taman Bahagia in Sandakan, Sabah,” he said, adding that a new feature is added to the app to confirm address details, including addition of postcode and state. – May 31, 2021.