Home Minister gives frontliner his turn in vaccination queue

PUTRAJAYA: Home Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin today allowed a Health Ministry frontliner to take his turn in the COVID-19 vaccination queue, saying that as a recovered patient of the disease he still had the antibodies in him.

"As I have just been discharged from hospital after COVID-19 infection, I have the antibodies in me," Hamzah said, adding that he does not have to get vaccinated so soon.

Hamzah was hospitalised last month for COVID-19 infection.

The minister's turn in the queue to receive a shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was given to Muhammad Ridzwan Zakaria, a health education officer in the Health Ministry.

"I selected a Health Ministry frontliner to take my place in the queue," Hamzah told Bernama after observing the vaccination of senior management members of the security forces under the jurisdiction of the Home Ministry, here.

Immigration director-general Datuk Khairul Dzaimee Daud; Malaysia Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) director-general Admiral (Maritime) Datuk Mohd Zubil Mat Som and Deputy Inspector-General of Police Datuk Seri Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani were among those who received their immunisation shots.

Muhammad Ridzwan, who has served the Health Ministry for eight years, said he was pleasantly shocked to have been selected for vaccination.

"The minister was by my side and observed the vaccination process," he said.

-- BERNAMA