You Can Also Now Register For COVID-19 Vaccine Through JKJAV’s Website and Hotline

The Special Committee for Ensuring Access To COVID-19 Vaccine Supply (JKJAV) yesterday has opened up the COVID-19 vaccine registration through its official website. Alternatively, the public can also register themselves by calling a dedicated hotline that has been set up by the committee.

The two new registration method were launched slightly around a week after JKJAV activated the registration page on the national COVID-19 app, MySejahtera. Up till 3:00 PM yesterday, more than 2 million people have registered for their COVID-19 vaccine through the app which has since been updated further to show a much clearer vaccination progress timeline to users.

Based on our experience though, we can confirm to you that the registration information submitted through JKJAV’s website is not being crosschecked with those that already existed within MySejahtera’s backend system. This is because we managed to submit our details through the website even though we have registered ourselves via MySejahtera last week:

Then again, the form did say that users would receive confirmation SMS within 24 hours after submission which can be taken as a sign that there is some manual work involved in the registration process. Hence, if you have been using the MySejahtera app, we do recommend you to just register for the vaccine through it.

Nevertheless, in case you need to register yourself or your loved ones via the website, just head on to vaksincovid.gov.my. You can also do it by calling the National COVID-19 Registration Vaccination Line at 1800-888-828.

Here Are The Three Phases Of National COVID-19 Immunization Program for Malaysia

Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin once again appeared on the national TV to deliver a special address to Malaysians in relation to the on-going COVID-19 situation. Most of the contents are related to the justification of the emergency order that took place since 11 January 2021 but there is one particular part that caught our attention: the national COVID-19 immunization program.

In the speech, PM Muhyiddin stated that the program will begin at the end of February 2020. This is in line with the arrival of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine that is expected to take place on 26 February according to the Director-General of Health, Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah. During the first phase of distribution which is scheduled to last until April, the COVID-19 vaccine will be provided to 500,000 frontliners.

After that, Phase 2 of the vaccine distribution will then take place from April to August 2021. 9.4 million people are expected to be covered in this particular phase which will be involving high-risk groups such as elderly of 60 years old and above alongside those that have chronic diseases as well as the disabled community.

As for the rest of the population, they will be able to obtain the COVID-19 vaccine starting from May 2021 until February 2022. Do note that the vaccination program is being performed on a voluntary basis and will only be administrated to individuals that are at least 18 years old.

PM Muhyiddin has also revealed that more than 600 vaccine distribution centres will be opened throughout Malaysia. Under the emergency ordinand, the government will be turning public and private health facilities as well as the stadium, convention centre, community halls, and universities into these centres.

He has also added that the Cabinet has agreed to appoint the Minister of Science, Technology, and Innovation, Khairy Jamaluddin as the coordinator of the program. On another hand, the Ministry of Health will continue to focus on combating the pandemic through health services.

Other information related to the national immunization program such as registration (which will apparently be done via MySejahtera) and the location of vaccine distribution centres will only be revealed at a later date, according to the PM. Well, we will keep you updated once this vital information is revealed by the authorities.

Covid-19: Private hospitals ready to assist

PETALING JAYA: Private hospitals are ready to assist the government to rein in the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We had met with Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin on Tuesday and had told him we are happy to assist the government for both Covid-19 and non-Covid-19 patients based on our capability and capacity, ” Association of Private Hospitals Malaysia’s (APHM) president Datuk Dr Kuljit Singh (pic) told StarBiz.

“We are waiting for more details on how the mechanism is going to work out and costing since we don’t have financial support from the Finance Ministry, ” Kuljit added.

He said the decision to let Covid-19 patients into private hospitals would be made by the hospital groups.

“Note that some hospitals are very small and have only limited number of intensive care unit (ICU) beds since they are expensive to maintain. The smaller hospitals can usually have up to three ICU beds while the bigger ones has up to 10, ” Kuljit said.

“While we are ready to take on the load from the government, we also cannot deny private hospital patients the timely treatment since some procedures are not available at the public hospitals, ” he added.

Kuljit said APHM would discuss further details on the coming arrangement between the private hospitals and government.

“There are a lot of logistics and standard operating procedures that the hospitals would have to think about as to how to cater with the additional patient load, whether Covid or non-Covid, ” he said.

Meanwhile, KPJ Healthcare Bhd’s president and CEO Ahmad Shahizam Mohd Shariff told StarBiz that the group is keen to support the government.

“I see it like a public-private partnership and this needs to be on a commercial basis with the costs also being reflected on the services we will provide. We will know the specifics on Wednesday, ” Ahmad Shahizam said.

KPJ is the biggest private hospital by bed count capacity in Malaysia.

In his speech yesterday, Muhyiddin said several Emergency Ordinances may be promulgated by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong for the purpose of curbing the Covid-19 pandemic.This included matters relating to the use of private hospital assets, temporary acquisition of land, buildings or private hospital movable assets or making requests for the use of private hospital resources for the purpose of treating Covid-19 patients.

“The government may seek more inclusive involvement from the private sector, including private healthcare facilities to help ease the burden borne by government agencies, especially public hospitals. Through this ordinance, assistance to be made available by the private sector includes human resources, expertise, facilities, assets, testing laboratories and utilities, ” Muhyiddin said.