JOHOR BARU, May 28 — Seven private hospitals in Johor will begin operating as Covid-19 vaccination centres (PPV) starting June 1 as part of the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme.

State Health and Environment Committee chairman R. Vidyananthan said it involved four private hospital vaccination centres (PPVHS) in Johor Baru district and one PPVHS each in Kluang, Batu Pahat and Muar districts.

"These PPVHS will administer 250 to 1,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccine a week,” he said in a statement here today.

He said the vaccination centres at private clinics or known as general practitioner vaccination centres (PPVGP) had increased by six since May 5, namely five in Johor Baru and one in Batu Pahat.

"The additional private clinics takes the total PPVGPs operating across the state to 43. These private clinics will give 36 to 90 doses of Covid-19 vaccine per week, however, the number of doses depends on the capacity of each clinic,” he said.

According to Vidyananthan, private medical practitioners under ProtectHealth who are involved in the programme are prohibited from obtaining lists of vaccine recipients by advertising on social media or short messaging apps such as WhatsApp, because it might cause confusion and misunderstanding among the public.

ProtectHealth is a wholly-owned subsidiary of ProtectHealth Malaysia, established under the Health Ministry. As a not-for-profit company, it coordinates, administers and manages initiatives related to financing healthcare services as mandated by the ministry.

Meanwhile, Vidyananthan said so far, the Special Committee on Covid-19 Vaccine Supply (JKJAV) has provided 26 PPV locations, namely six PPVs in Johor Baru, followed by Kota Tinggi and Mersing with three PPVs each while Batu Pahat, Kluang, Muar, Pontian, Segamat, Kulai and Tangkak have two PPVs each. — Bernama