SEREMBAN, May 6 — A total of 2,448 out of 8,000 private hospitals and clinics in the country have registered as vaccination centres under the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme.

Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba said that of the total, only 1,934 clinics have signed the letter of agreement and 299 others were ready to operate as vaccination centres.

"As of two days ago, 37 private clinics are prepared for the vaccination process and their involvement will be managed by the Health Ministry, including on training and handling of the vaccine.

"They also comply with the standard operating procedure (SOP) set by the government to provide free vaccination to the public,” he told reporters after observing the implementation of the programme at a private facility here, today.

With the involvement of private facilities, the ongoing vaccination programme will be able to reach all communities across the country more comprehensively.

"During the third phase, we will need more private clinics as vaccination centres and those applying must have freezers to store the vaccine, in addition to training their personnel to comply with the SOP,” said Dr Adham.

He added that a survey conducted by the ministry on 15,000 respondents last April revealed that 88 per cent of Malaysians agreed and are ready to be vaccinated.

Another 10 per cent did not agree and the rest were uncertain due to safety concerns and wanted to see the impact of the vaccine on others first.

Dr Adham said this would have a slight effect on the vaccination programme, which is currently in the second phase.

When asked about senior citizens who did not show up for their vaccination appointments, he said the Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force agreed to mobilise their machinery to pick up the vaccine recipients at their registered addresses. — Bernama