King expresses appreciation to UAE for donating one mln doses of COVID-19 vaccine

KUALA LUMPUR: Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah today expressed appreciation to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) government for contributing one million doses of COVID-19 Sinopharm vaccine to Malaysia.

In a post on the Istana Negara's Facebook page, His Majesty also expressed his appreciation to Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan for the contribution.

A total of 500,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine arrived at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) yesterday, which were handed over by the Charge d'Affaires ad interim of the UAE Embassy in Kuala Lumpur Nour Ibrahim Ali Rashed Al-Kuwaiti to Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Abdullah.

The remaining 500,000 doses are scheduled to arrive in Malaysia within two weeks.

Al Sultan Abdullah also expressed his appreciation to Saifuddin; Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba and Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin for the efforts in forging the cooperation with the UAE government that led to the contribution of the vaccine supply.

AGONG-UAE 2 (LAST) KUALA LUMPUR

"This contribution proves the close friendship and strong bilateral relations between the two countries. Hopefully, this contribution will help the government to succeed in the National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme in combating and curbing the spread of this virus," according to the Facebook post.

The Comptroller of the Royal Household for Istana Negara Datuk Ahmad Fadil Shamsuddin also conveyed Al-Sultan Abdullah's thanks and appreciation to the UAE Ambassador to Malaysia Khalid Ghanim Mohammad Alghaith.

The UAE has previously contributed 20,000 units of COVID-19 PCR test kits in March 2020 and seven tonnes of hand sanitisers to Wisma Putra for Malaysia Diplomatic Equipment Stockpile (MDES) in May of the same year, to be distributed to Malaysian representatives overseas.

His Majesty also called on the people to pray that the country would always be under the protection of Allah SWT, spared from any form of calamities and for the spread of COVID-19 to be contained and ended effectively and immediately.

-- BERNAMA