KUALA LUMPUR, June 17 — The Malaysian Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) today offered COvid-19 vaccination to 40,000 workers in the construction industry to accelerate the rate of vaccination for economic frontliners.

Senior Works Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof said the matter had been approved by the National Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF) after accepting the proposal on the immunisation programme for the industrial sector on June 14.

"Under the programme, the private sector is required to prepare and fund their own qualified medical team and vaccination centre, while the vaccine will be supplied and delivered to them free of charge by the government.

"In this context, CIDB will coordinate and facilitate the implementation of the immunisation programme on behalf of the construction industry. This is part of CIDB’s contribution in helping the construction industry workers during this difficult time,” he said in a statement here today.

Fadillah said the vaccination charge to be imposed under the programme was RM140 per person for both doses of the vaccine, and to alleviate the financial burden of the industry, CIDB will be providing a subsidy of RM50 for each worker and allow its premises to be used as a vaccination centre.

 "This means that employers in the construction industry will only have to pay RM90 for each of their workers to be fully vaccinated.

"Participation in the programme is voluntary and, of course, employers in the construction industry can choose to organise their own vaccination programmes by dealing directly with the CITF,” he said.

He said the CIDB’s vaccination programme will be held in Kuala Lumpur on June 30 and in Selangor on July 14.

Employers in the construction industry wishing to register their workers in the programme can do so starting June 21 at http://vaccine.cidblink.com or call 03-4042 8880 for enquiries. — Bernama