Reports by MARTIN CARVALHO, RAHIMY RAHIM and TARRENCE TAN

       A TOTAL of RM314mil from the RM1bil allocated for the national vaccination programme had been spent, says Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba.

       “The bulk of the expenditure, amounting to 83.2%, was spent on rental, utility, equipment, apparel, sanitisation, cleaning, and food and beverage for those manning vaccination dispensing centres (PPV),” he said in reply to a question by Datuk Zakaria Mohd Edris (PN-Libaran).

       Other expenditure made so far, he added, was on monthly token sum for volunteers and security personnel (9.7%), integration of data and systems (6%) and unforeseen payments (1.1%).

       The disbursement of the allocation was handled by the Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force and was channelled to each state and relevant ministries and agencies.

       Dr Adham also said presently there were 12 categories of PPV which were capable of dispensing over 500,000 doses of vaccine a day.

       “The combined capacity for these PPV is 586,247 doses a day.

       “The mega PPV are able to dispense about 93,000 doses a day, non-health facilities about 262,000 doses and 29,500 doses by health clinics,” he said.

       Dr Adham said 40 million doses had been administered nationwide under the vaccination programme so far while wastage due to non-attendance of recipients and oversupply at some PPV was minimal.

       He added that the vaccination rate in Sabah would reach 60% by the end of this month following the supply of four million doses to the state in August and September.