KUALA LUMPUR: The Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM) is providing security escort for every movement of COVID-19 vaccine that arrives in the country, said the Bukit Aman Internal Security and Public Order Department (Operations) deputy director Datuk Azri Ahmad.

For the arrival of the first batch of COVID-19 Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine today, a total of 150 PDRM personnel were involved in accompanying 312,390 doses of the vaccine, as well as PDRM assets such as high-powered motorcycles, police patrol cars and mobile police stations.

He said that the first batch of vaccine, after arriving in the country via Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), will be sent to three locations of Vaccine Storage Centers (VSCs) owned by logistics company DHL, namely, in Subang, Selangor; Bayan Lepas, Penang and Senai, Johor.

The vaccine delivery movement to 16 VSCs owned by the Ministry of Health (MOH) in Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Penang and Johor will start tomorrow, he said.

"PDRM has identified safe routes for the vaccine with police personnel from various departments including traffic and special branches, will be involved in this assignment," he told Bernama today.

Apart from being involved in the task of providing security escort throughout the vaccine movement, PDRM will also monitor VSCs owned by the logistics company and MOH by placing personnel and mobile police stations, he said.

Azri said PDRM would also always make an assessment of the possible threats during the movement and storage of the vaccine.

"We consider this a very important task because the country is waiting its turn to get the vaccine which is very important to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic," he said.

Meanwhile, Selangor deputy police chief Datuk Arjunaidi Mohamed said there was no need for the roads in Selangor to be closed to provide security control over the vaccine movement.

"Preparations to ensure the safety of the vaccine have been made with strict control by the police, and there is no need to do road closures," he said.

-- BERNAMA