PUTRAJAYA, March 5 — A total of 1,358 officers and personnel of the Fire and Rescue Department (JBPM) who are directly involved in the Covid-19 operations have received their vaccine jabs since the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme began on February 24.

Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Zuraida Kamaruddin said they were among the 7,483 firemen nationwide who are frontliners and were listed to receive the Covid-19 vaccine in the first phase of the country’s largest vaccination programme.

"The personnel selected to receive the vaccine are also those who are at high risk of getting and spreading Covid-19 infection while performing their duties,” she told reporters after receiving her first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine at the Putrajaya Health Clinic in Precinct 18 here today.

JBPM director-general Datuk Seri Mohammad Hamdan Wahid and four other firefighters were also given the first dose of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine at the clinic.

Zuraida said other firemen would receive the vaccine in the next phase through registration on the MySejahtera application.

Meanwhile, she said firemen were still carrying out sanitation works in public places to curb the spread of Covid-19 and a total of 17,963 sanitation works had been carried out since March last year. — Bernama