JOHOR BAHRU: Johor received a portion of the COVID-19 vaccine supply that arrived in the country today to be placed at four vaccine storage centres (VSC) in the state.

The supply, which is part of the first batch of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines, arrived in Johor Bahru from Singapore via the Johor Causeway.

Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba and Johor Menteri Besar Datuk Ir Hasni Mohammad were present on-site when the supplies arrived.

A DHL logistics lorry was seen on the Johor Causeway at about 1 pm, before it arrived at the Sultan Iskandar Building (BSI) at about 2 pm.

The lorry was closely guarded by the Singaporean authorities along the causeway until it reached BSI.

The vaccine supply is expected to be distributed to the four Ministry of Health (MOH) VSCs in the state beginning tomorrow.

Dr Adham, in a post on his official Facebook said 73,710 doses for Johor will be sent to the four VSCs.

"From the VSCs, the vaccines will be distributed to all 54 vaccination centres throughout the state of Johor. The frontliners in Johor will be the first group to receive the vaccine in stages, starting this week," he added.

On Feb 18, Hasni was reported as saying that the state government was in the process of finalising the list of first phase vaccine recipients in the state including frontliners.

So far, 18,000 Ministry of Health staff in Johor have been identified for inoculation.

-- BERNAMA