Director general of health Datuk Dr Noor Hisham announced on Saturday that all mega vaccination centres (PPVs) will cease to operate starting 16 March. He noted that adults, teens aged 12 to 17, and children aged five to 11 may still visit the PPVs at Axiata Arena Bukit Jalil and World Trade Centre (formerly known as PTWC) to fulfill their initial two-dose shots or boosters. Until the aforementioned date, these locations will be open strictly for walk-ins from 9 am to 6 pm.
According to health minister Khairy Jamaluddin, the decision to shut down all COVID-19 mega PPVs was due to the high rental cost at their respective locations. These usually involve large venues such as convention halls, which the ministry of health (MOH) deemed to be no longer cost-effective to operate from.
“These centres are not free and we have to pay to use them, and now there is no longer a need to keep operating from these integrated or mega PPVs,” the minister clarified in a statement, a day after Dr Noor Hisham’s announcement. “Using smaller settings such as private or health clinics will be sufficient from now onwards.”
Semua PPV Mega akan ditutup bermula 16hb Mac 2022. Sehingga tarikh tersebut, vaksinasi COVID-19 secara jumpa terus (walk-in) dibuka seperi di butiran berikut: pic.twitter.com/4UycJyvTDZ
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— Noor Hisham Abdullah (@DGHisham) March 5, 2022
Khairy added that the majority of the Malaysian population has been inoculated. Therefore, large scale PPVs are no longer needed for the lower number of recipients who have yet to receive their vaccine doses or boosters. Furthermore, he noted that parents may also opt for PICKids-operated school PPVs in order to have their children vaccinated.
