He said the first phase will involve some 500,000 health and non-health frontliners and is expected to end in April.

The second phase will involve Covid-19 high-risk groups, namely senior citizens, vulnerable individuals with comorbidities and disabled persons. This is expected to go on from April to August, involving around 9.4 million people.

The third phase of the programme will involve adults aged 18 and above, who will be given the jabs from May this year to February next year, running concurrently with the second phase.

“This phase is important to develop herd immunity and then to control the pandemic,” he said in a national address today.

More than 600 storage centres, which will also be vaccination centres, will be set up nationwide, located across public and private health facilities, stadiums, convention centres, public halls and universities.

“Provisions under the Emergency Ordinance (Essential Powers) 2021 will be used by the government to temporarily take over halls and other facilities in preparation for the national Covid-19 immunisation programme,” said Muhyiddin.

The largest vaccination programme in the country’s history will be led by science, technology and innovation minister Khairy Jamaluddin through a special task force that will manage the implementation of the programme, Muhyiddin said.

This is to ensure that the health ministry is able to focus its efforts on the country’s healthcare services in battling the pandemic.

He added that further details on the programme’s registration process and centre locations will be announced in the near future.

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