AROUND 65% or 1.74 million senior citizens out of the 2.67 million who registered for Covid-19 vaccination have been given one dose, said Khairy Jamaluddin.

Another 757,747 appointments have been scheduled between today and June 30, the co-ordinating minister for the national immunisation programme said today.

The majority of these appointments are for those aged 50 and above, he told the weekly joint press conference on the vaccination programme with Health Minister Dr Adham Baba on the vaccination.

Of these, 253,719 appointments are for those aged above 60 years’ old, and 228,397 are for those aged 50 to 59.

A total of 83,610 appointments are for those aged between 40 and 49, and the remainder are for individuals aged between 18 and 39, Khairy said.

“This data shows that claims of appointments not given to people belonging to certain age groups is untrue.”

There have been complaints on social media of people who said their elderly parents had been waiting a long time to receive a vaccination appointment, despite the government’s plan to reserve phase 2 of the vaccination programme for senior citizens. Also under this phase are other high-risk individuals.

The Malaysian Insight also reported recently that younger people not eligible under phase 2 were also getting vaccinated in Langkawi ahead of older folk. Khairy has said he will investigate this.

The science, technology and innovation minister said the decision to activate phase 3 of the national immunisation programme in the Klang Valley first was made after taking into account the fact that 99% of senior citizens in Kuala Lumpur who registered for vaccination, as well as 88% in Selangor, have received their first dose or vaccination appointment.

He said the proactive measure was to expedite the vaccination program without having to wait for 100% registration.

Phase 3 – for adults aged 18 and above – began in the Klang Valley today. – June 21, 2021.