GEORGE TOWN, Aug 16 — Penang, which is scheduled to receive an additional 368,550 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine this month, hopes that the vaccine shortage problems in the state will not recur.
Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said a total of 87,750 doses would arrive in the first week of August, followed by 58,500 doses (second week), 93,600 doses (third week) and 128,700 doses (fourth week).
He said the state government viewed the shortage of vaccine supply seriously and urged the Health Ministry to take necessary actions to ensure the same situation did not happen again.
“The distribution and delivery of vaccines should be balanced so as not to cause any difficulties and forced several public vaccination centres (PPV) in the state to close yesterday, due to the shortage of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine supply as reported recently,” he said in a statement today.
Following the shortage of the Pfizer vaccine supply for the second week of August, the appointments for the second dose vaccinations at four PPVs, namely Kompleks Sukan Balik Pulau, Dewan Balai Rakyat Bayan Baru, Tapak Pesta Pulau Pinang and Dewan Millenium Kepala Batas, had to be postponed to Aug 22 onwards.
However, he said the postponement would not affect the daily operations of the PPVs to administer the first dose of the vaccine.
Chow said the administration of the second dose of the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine at 58 private clinics and 10 private hospitals operating as PPVs had also been rescheduled to after Aug 22.
“All parties involved have been given early notices by the Penang Health Department and vaccine recipients have also been informed of the new appointment dates through the MySejahtera application,” he said.
