KUALA LUMPUR – Johor’s ruler has expressed disappointment with the glacial pace of the Covid-19 vaccination roll-out in his state, as the opposition claimsthat four vaccination centres have shut down temporarily after running out of vaccines amid a nationwide supply crunch.

“I feel the vaccination rate is still too slow and needs to be accelerated urgently. I hope the federal government can also increase vaccine supplies to Johor,” Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar said on his Facebook page on Wednesday (June 24).

“The Johor state government machinery is prepared to deliver 50,000 jabs a day, with the aim of vaccinating 50 per cent of the Johor population within two months.”

His comments came after the Sultan of Selangor voiced similar concerns for Selangor earlier this month.

According to the Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force, some 15 per cent of Johor’s 3.78 million residents have received at least one vaccine dose.

Lawmaker for opposition Democratic Action Party (DAP), Ms Wong Shu Qi, claimed that four vaccination centres had to be temporarily closed after running out of vaccine supply.

“Even the vaccination centre in the prime minister’s constituency of Pagoh is closed,” Ms Wong told The Straits Times.

She said the other affected vaccination centres are in Pekan Nanas, Simpang Renggam and Parit Raja.

The office of the coordinating minister for immunisation, Mr Khairy Jamaluddin, did not respond to a request from ST on Thursday for comments on the alleged closure of the four centres.

Ms Wong and fellow DAP MP Teo Nie Ching said in a joint statement on Wednesday: “We were also informed that the number of vaccines given daily in some districts, including Kulai, has fallen drastically. This shows there are insufficient vaccine stocks in Johor.”

They pointed out that the state had administered more than 20,000 doses a day on June 14, 15 and 15, but this fell to 13,718 doses on June 20, 16,738 doses on June 21 and 17,268 doses on June 22.

The acceleration of the vaccination roll-out in the Klang Valley is also said to be causing the slowdown.

The DAP MPsnoted that several mega vaccination centres in the Klang Valley have opened recently with a large number of doses being given out daily, as it is the worst hit area in the country.

They said while it is not surprising if Mr Khairy intends to focus on the Klang Valley, he “must reveal all this information so that the people can understand which areas are being prioritised”.

“Most importantly, the number of doses distributed among the districts should be based on population. We were informed that there are youths in a certain minister’s constituency who have already received their vaccination appointment even though there are senior citizens in other constituencies who have yet to get their appointment,” they said.

“Rumours on social media about queue-cutting to get a vaccine appointment can also erode public confidence in the national immunisation programme.”

The Johor state government had earlier targeted to vaccinate 80 per cent of its population by October, as it works towards the reopening of its border with Singapore.

Mr Khairy said last week that the aim is to hit a 50 per cent vaccination rate in Johor by September, and complete the rest by October.

He had accused developed countries of hoarding Covid-19 vaccines, leading to a global supply problem that has also affected Malaysia.

The country is rapidly increasing vaccination centres, and targeting an additional 1,000 private clinics by the end of the month, as well as retired health workers, housemen, and medical students to administer the vaccine.

Malaysia recorded 5,841 new cases on Thursday, with 2,624 in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor. Johor saw 346 infections.

The country is now in a full lockdown until June 28.

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