KUALA LUMPUR, May 18 — Selangor state government has announced that employers who wish to procure Covid-19 vaccines for their staff can now register their interest through the former’s SELangkah application.

However, the state government has yet to clarify the process by which this vaccine will be administered, nor the source of the vaccines.

"SElangkah has opened the registration process for employers who are interested in getting the vaccine for their staff at vax.selangkah.my,” Dr Siti Mariah Mahmud, the state executive councillor for public health, said in a statement yesterday.

A check by Malay Mail of the state’s smart visitor registration system confirmed the addition of a new section called "SelangkahVax” with detailed steps for interested employers to follow.

Dr Siti Mariah had in the same statement denied a purported circular that had went viral in social media claiming that Selangor had procured 500,000 doses of Sinovac vaccines for its residents.

Malay Mail is currently seeking further elaboration on this matter with Selangor and Dr Siti Mariah.

Earlier today, Penang assemblyman Chong Eng called for the decentralisation of the Covid-19 vaccines procurement to speed up the inoculation rate nationwide.

The DAP Women’s wing chairman said the Health Ministry should allow respective state governments and the private sector to procure the Covid-19 vaccines that have been registered with the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA).

Two days ago, it was reported that Sarawak will receive 500,000 doses of Sinovac’s Covid-19 vaccine, procured by the state government, within a week.

Sarawak Public Health and Housing Assistant Minister Dr Annuar Rapaee said an additional 500,000 doses of the same vaccine would also be received by the state after that.

On March 16, Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin was reported as saying that Putrajaya would not object if state governments purchase Covid-19 vaccines for their own immunisation programmes

However, Khairy, who is also in charge of the national Covid-19 immunisation programme, said the problem lies not in the procurement of the vaccines, but their supply.