KOTA KINABALU, Feb 22 — Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor is expected to receive the Covid-19 vaccination on March 4, following the launch of the state level immunisation programme.

However, it was unclear if Hajiji would be the first in the state to undergo vaccination for the dreaded coronavirus.

"During the launching, in all other categories of recipients, normally the head of government is the first one to be given,” Sabah Covid-19 spokesman Datuk Masidi Manjun said this evening.

Masidi said that although the first phase of the immunisation is to be given to frontliners, the state will consider allowing teachers with comorbidity and other high risk factors to be included.

Hajiji is a survivor of Covid-19, having contracted the viral disease shortly after coming into power last September. He was hospitalised along with his wife Datin Seri Julia Salag and he was believed to have been seriously ill.

However, he recovered and was discharged on October 18 from the Queen Elizabeth Hospital where he had received treatment.

The Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine is scheduled to arrive in Sabah this Thursday, February 25, and Hajiji himself is expected to receive the goods at the Kota Kinabalu International Airport.

Malaysia yesterday received 312,390 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

Sabah will receive its shipment in three batches.

At the moment, 109 vaccine centres in the state have been identified and will be involved in the inoculation process.

The number will be reviewed from time to time by the state Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force to coordinate the implementation of the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme in the state.