Government will be acquiring a total of 8.2 million doses of Sinovac vaccine

 The Malaysian Armed Forces (MAF) is capable of setting up two more field hospitals to accommodate the increasing number of Covid-19 patients, said Senior Minister (Security) Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob. 

He said this was based on the existing number of MAF healthcare personnel. "Although the MAF currently has three field hospitals, namely in Tawau, Sabah; Kapit, Sarawak; and Kepala Batas, Penang; we are capable of setting up two more field hospitals.

"Actually, the MAF can set up more field hospitals, but to do that, we will require additional staff, namely 30 doctors and 100 paramedics,” he said at a virtual media conference after a working visit to Pharmaniaga LifeScience in Puchong here Sunday (May 23).

Ismail Sabri said that with the additional personnel, the MAF would be able to construct more field hospitals as well as add other health equipment and supplies for the management of Covid-19. 

While in Penang, the field hospital in Kepala Batas is expected to start taking in patients on Tuesday (May 25) after completing a dry run tomorrow. Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, who visited the hospital today, said there were many applications to set up more field hospitals nationwide, among them being Negri Sembilan and Kelantan. 

Sinovac Vaccine

The government will be acquiring a total of 8.2 million doses of Sinovac vaccine by the end of

June with 3.8 million of them through the “fill and finish” process by Pharmaniaga Life Science Sdn Bhd. 

Senior Minister (Security Cluster) Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said 4.4 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine were imported directly from China with 400,000 already distributed and one million doses have arrived, adding that the remaining three million would be received by the end of next month.

Ismail Sabri said the effort of the company would enable the government to expedite the process of vaccination for the people.He also said yesterday, the Pharmaniaga factory had completed 1,889,800 doses of vaccine for distribution and the overall total vaccine production from the factory is 2,609,800 as of end May.