17,053 companies have registered under PIKAS
25 Jul 2021
A total of 17,053 companies with 1.3 million workers nationwide have registered under the Public-Private Partnership Covid-19 Industry Immunisation Programme (PIKAS) as of yesterday (Saturday, July 24).
Deputy International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Lim Ban Hong said of the total, 298,306 workers have received their first jab, while 28,596 others have completed both doses of the vaccine.
“Vaccination is an important element in the country’s economic recovery and we hope the initiative to open up PIKAS vaccination centres (PPV) can help achieve the target of fully vaccinating all adult population nationwide by October.
“We also hope that more PIKAS PPVs will be opened soon so that the process of inoculating industrial workers can be expedited,” he told reporters after visiting the PIKAS Common PPV at Bayou Convention Centre here today.
Earlier, Lim joined a visit by the Melaka Yang Dipertua Negeri Tun Mohd Ali Rustam to the PPV with state Health and Anti-Drugs Committee chairman Datuk Rahmad Mariman also present.
Commenting further, Lim said a total of 12 Common PPVs and 22 on-site PPVs were involved in administering the vaccines to industrial workers throughout the country.
He said the Common PPVs would manage vaccinations for more than one company while the on-site PPVs were specifically opened for factories with over 1,000 employees.
“This is to reduce the movements of many workers to other PPVs and the setting up of these on-site PPVs will be considered based on the requirement,” he said.
Meanwhile, Lim said the PIKAS Common PPV at Bayou Convention Centre which would start operations tomorrow is the first PPV in such category in Melaka and could accommodate up to 1,500 vaccine recipients daily.
He added that a total of 15,000 doses of the vaccine have been approved by the Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF) for the PPV and the ministry have requested for additional 35,000 doses.
“We have also submitted applications for the opening of an on-site PPV and two Common PPVs in Melaka and is waiting for operation dates from CITF,” he said.
Source: Bernama
