GEORGE TOWN: Penang is expected to get its entire population vaccinated against Covid-19 with at least one dose by mid-September with over 300,000 doses of vaccines inbound.

Dr Norlela Ariffin (PH-Penanti), who is state health committee chairman, said there was a verbal offer from the Health Ministry to provide vaccines earlier than scheduled.

“On Friday (Sept 3), the state is expected to receive 140,000 Pfizer doses and another batch of almost 200,000 Pfizer doses on Sept 10.

“Yesterday (Aug 31), we obtained 20,000 doses from Selangor.

“With this, we will be able to ensure that 100% of the state population has at least the first dose by mid-September,” she said during the state assembly sitting held at Dewan Sri Pinang, George Town on Wednesday (Sept 1).

Meanwhile, Dr Norlela said the state’s public healthcare system is well equipped to face the Delta variant and added that according to the latest updates, there were seven such cases in the state.

Satees Muniandy (DAP-Bagan Dalam) interrupted and said state Health Dept data showed there were 31 cases at present in Penang.

“This makes Penang the second highest after Sarawak in terms of Delta variant cases," said Satees.

“But the state exco (Norlela) said there are only seven Delta cases at present," he added.

Norlela clarified that the data was updated two days ago but Satees claimed the exco had introduced irrelevant information from Aug 12 when it was already Sept 1.

Speaker Datuk Law Choo Kiang asked both Satees and Norlela to sit down and pointed out that answers given in the assembly followed a timeline.

“Answers cannot be provided as of the night before. Assemblymen need to understand this.

“It is important to get updates for issues like this before the meeting but (this information) can also be provided after the meeting," he added.

https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2021/09/01/penang-sees-100-of-population-getting-at-least-one-covid-19-vaccine-dose-by-mid-september