First day of AstraZeneca vaccine administration goes smoothly

KUALA LUMPUR: The first day of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine administration went smoothly despite public concerns over the vaccine.

In fact, Malaysians and foreigners who are among the earliest to receive the vaccine today expressed their excitement and gratefulness.

The AstraZeneca vaccine is being administered on a voluntary basis at four vaccination centres (PPV) in Klang Valley.

Today, the vaccine administration at three centres namely World Trade Centre Kuala Lumpur (WTC), Universiti Malaya (UM) and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) involved near 4,000 appointments.

A check by Bernama at WTC found that those with appointments arrived as early as 8 am.

VACCINE-ASTRAZENECA 2 (LAST) KUALA LUMPUR

Information technology personnel Sharifah Shahnaz Syed Aidil Hassan, 29, said everyone should get the vaccine to help the country achieve herd immunity against COVID-19 faster.

"Some of my family members have also registered to take the shot, if it is effective for us, we want to spread the benefit to the public," she said.

Meanwhile, businessman Eddy Ng, 48, hopes that the pandemic will end soon and life will turn to normal.

"Regardless of what type of vaccine, it is up to us to get it or not, if there are those who think that it (AstraZeneca) is not suitable (for them), that is up to them, but it is important for us Malaysians to get COVID-19 vaccine as soon as possible," he said.

Adlucia Maghnes, 48, from Sydney described herself as lucky for getting the vaccine in Malaysia.

She said her family members had taken the same type of vaccine in the United Kingdom and did not show any side effects after the vaccination, thus motivating her to register for it on Sunday.

A total of 286,000 doses of AstraZeneca are offered under the first phase.

-- BERNAMA