7,000 firefighters to receive Covid-19 vaccine starting March 5

By Bernama - March 2, 2021 @ 3:38pm

PUTRAJAYA: A total of 7,000 firefighters, who are also frontliners, have registered to receive the Covid-19 vaccine in the first phase of the National Immunisation Programme.

Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Zuraida Kamaruddin said the vaccination exercise would be carried out in stages beginning this Friday.

Zuraida and Fire and Rescue Department (JBPM) director-general Datuk Seri Muhammad Hamdan Wahid will be among those to receive the vaccine on that day.

Zuraida, when met by reporters after launching the 2021 National Landscape Day, said there are 14,000 firefighters nationwide.

Themed "Lindung Diri, Lindung Semua" (protect yourself, protect everyone), the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme which began on Feb 24 will be carried out in three phases, to ensure that at least 80 per cent of Malaysian adults receive the Covid-19 vaccine by Feb 2022.

Phase 1 from Feb to April this year is for over 500,000 frontliners, while Phase 2 from April to August involves senior citizens aged 60 and above, high-risk groups with morbidity issues and the disabled involving 9.4 million people.

Phase 3 from May to Feb 2022 is for everyone else aged 18 years and above, including foreigners, targeting more than 13.7 million people.

Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah and several other frontliners were the first to receive the vaccine on Feb 24.

To date, a total of 32,277 people have received the first dose of Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine. – BERNAMA