COVID VACCINE: 16,380 DOSES ARRIVE IN SABAH TODAY

The 16,380 doses of Covid-19 vaccines arrived in Sabah today. -Photo by Information Department of Malaysia

25 Feb 2021

By Ilona Andrew

KOTA KINABALU: The first supply of Covid-19 vaccines containing a total of 16,380 doses have arrived in Sabah today.

Local Government and Housing Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun said are a total of six packages that will be sent to Sabah in stages starting today until April 1.

"Sabah will receive a total of 104,110 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines supply... The second batch containing a total of 9,630 doses will arrive on March 4," he said when met by reporters after witnessing the arrival at Terminal 2 of the Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA) here, today.

The other batches will arrive in subsequent weeks with the third batch on March 11 (24,550 doses), the fourth batch on March 18 (3,510 doses), the fifth batch on March 25 (18,720 doses) and the sixth batch on April 1 (31,590 doses),

Masidi (third right) poses with the consingment.

According to Masidi, Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor is expected to receive the jab after launching the statewide vaccination programme on March 4.

"We have selected three first recipients of the vaccine, they are the chief minister as the head of the government, State Health Director Datuk Dr Christina Rundi, and Sabah Police Commissioner Datuk Hazani Ghazali.

"A total of 42,117 frontline workers, including those under the Ministry of Health (MoH), will receive the vaccine on this first phase," he said, adding that about four mllion citizens in Sabah will receive the vaccine in the next phases.

The vaccines which arrived today is scheduled to be delivered to the storage centres of Queen Elizabeth Hospital and Keningau Hospital.