COVID: MASkargo steps up preparation to receive Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine

SEPANG: MAB Kargo Sdn Bhd (MASkargo) is intensifying preparations at the Advanced Cargo Centre (ACC), KL International Airport (KLIA) to ensure the smooth and orderly handling of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine which is due to arrive in Malaysia on Sunday.

“The preparation to receive the vaccine is currently at 110 per cent,” said MASkargo chief operations officer Mohd Zulkefly Ujang when met at the ACC here, yesterday.

MASkargo, which is tasked with coordinating the process of receiving the vaccine at KLIA, had conducted a series of training to ferry the vaccine at -70 degree Celsius over the past five months to ensure the efficacy of the vaccine would not be affected.

Mohd Zulkefly said every worker on duty on that day to receive the vaccine had undergone a course on vaccine handling.

He said MASkargo had the expertise in handling the vaccine because it had handled receiving numerous types of vaccines on a daily basis, besides having a complete facility.

“We receive numerous types of vaccines daily and the only difference is the temperature required for them,” he said.

Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin on Tuesday announced that the COVID-19 Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine would arrive in the country on Sunday, with the implementation of the National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme set to begin in phases from Feb 26.

Muhyiddin would receive the vaccination on the first day of the programme implementation, together with the frontliners.

The first phase of the immunisation programme, which is until April, will involve the frontliners, followed by the second phase, which is from April to August, for the high-risk groups, namely senior citizens aged 60 years and above and the vulnerable group with morbidity problems as well as Persons with Disabilities.

The third phase, which is from May until February next year, is for those aged 18 and above.

-- BERNAMA