Bangkok: As COVID-19 cases surge in Thailand, some Buddhist monks are donning personal protective equipment over their distinctive robes, delivering oxygen cylinders, taking nasal samples to help with testing, and even helping carry the dead to the crematoriums.
Thailand is struggling to contain its latest outbreak fuelled by the highly contagious Delta variant, leaving healthcare services stretched and further damaging a battered economy.
"There are a lot of Thais who are still ignored by the public health system," Mahapromphong, 33, the deputy abbot of Suthi Wararam Temple in the Thai capital, told AFP.
Since Jul 21 he has been working in Bangkok's poorer neighbourhoods, distributing oxygen tanks, food and medical supplies to the needy as well as taking samples for testing.
Monks are highly respected in the Buddhist kingdom, and they were inundated with donations once word got out, he adds.
He learnt how to do nasal swabs from the doctors and nurses working in his temple, which doubles as an isolation centre for those infected with the virus.
One man winced as Mahapromphong removed the swab and deposited the sample in a plastic pot.
"It's better to be safe than sorry," the man said, his eyes watering.
"Monks are able to live because we rely on people's donation," Mahapromphong told AFP.
"So it's time for us to give back to the people. At the very least, we could encourage them to keep fighting."
The family of Malee Manjeen, who died due to COVID-19, watch from a distance as monks in personal protective equipment carry her coffin to the crematorium. AFP/Lillian SUWANRUMPHA
Supornchaithammo, a monk at Chin Wararam Worawiharn Temple, helps with the grimmer task of taking the bodies to the crematorium.
"I'm willing to take the risk here," he said. "If I contract the virus then I'm ready to accept it without any regret."
"EVERYBODY NEEDS A HELPING HAND"
Thailand has reported more than 597,000 coronavirus cases and over 4,800 deaths.
The bulk of the new infections were detected since April, when the latest wave was sparked by a cluster at an upscale Bangkok nightlife district frequented by the politically connected.
Premier Prayut Chan-o-cha's administration has been roundly criticised for its handling of the pandemic, from accusations of vaccine mismanagement to the lack of government compensation for affected sectors.
Monk Supornchaithammo says he never expected this to be his routine, but is happy to help.
"I didn't have it in my head that I would be doing something like this when I was ordained," he told AFP.
BOGOR, Indonesia: The sun was blazing hot when four volunteers from the local COVID-19 task force, draped in full personal protective gear, descended on a densely populated neighbourhood in Bogor, one of Jakarta’s satellite cities.
Soaking in sweat with their goggles and face shields fogging, they trod along a dusty alleyway filled with tightly packed houses as curious onlookers observed their every step.
Just before the alleyway split into a T-junction, a crowd of around two dozen people had gathered outside a small, neon blue home. No one dared to step inside for the lady of the house, 47-year-old Rita Nurbaeti, had died hours before, following a week of battling COVID-19.
Not even her husband and their three children – who all tested negative for the coronavirus – were brave enough to be with her. She was still in her night gown as she breathed her last.
“We tried to take her to the hospital because she was hyperventilating but all the hospital beds were full,” Mr Mujiburrahman Rizal told CNA of his late wife. “We took care of her the best we could. We gave her medications from the hospital as well as some herbal medicines. But God had other plans for her.”
Volunteers from the Bogor COVID-19 task force preparing to wash the body of a woman who died while isolating at home in Bogor, Indonesia. (Photo: Nivell Rayda)
Indonesia has seen a surge in COVID-19 cases, mostly due to the spread of the more transmissible Delta variant. This month alone, more than a million people have tested positive for the coronavirus. Experts have warned that there could be many times more cases which had gone undetected.
The rapid rise of cases has overwhelmed the nation’s healthcare system, leaving many patients, even those with severe symptoms, unable to receive proper care in the hospitals. In the last 30 days, at least 28,000 COVID-19 related deaths had been recorded, some of whom died while isolating at home.
Before the pandemic, it was up to the family and the local community to make their own funeral arrangements for the dead.
According to Islam, observed by about 90 per cent of Indonesians, the funeral preparations involve washing and wrapping of the dead with white cloth and performing prayers for the deceased, before the bodies are laid in their final resting place.
At the beginning of the pandemic, health workers and paramedics assisted in the burial preparations of those believed to have died of COVID-19. However, with many of these health workers too preoccupied in treating the growing number of COVID-19 patients, the responsibility to care for the dead, at least in Bogor, now falls into the hands of a group of volunteers.
When Indonesia began imposing the Emergency Community Restrictions for Java and Bali in early July, senior Bogor officials set up a task force to look into the issues and challenges where they would most likely need extra help. These included the problem of providing the necessary care for COVID-19 patients who died while isolating at home.
A volunteer from the Bogor City Deceased Evacuation and Mitigation Team getting ready to attend to a COVID-19 patient who died while isolating at home. (Photo: Nivell Rayda)
"The government decided that they need people to remove bodies of those who died while in self isolation," said Mr Rino Indira Gusniawan, the director of a local water distribution company who was tasked with assembling a team of volunteers for the job.
“There are people who are so afraid of COVID-19 bodies, they don't want to touch the bodies at all. Then there are those who are completely negligent and take COVID-19 lightly. These are the two issues that we are trying to address,” he told CNA.
Mr Gusniawan quickly got to work to recruit volunteers from various organisations and groups operating in the city. Before long, the Bogor City Deceased Evacuation and Mitigation Team was formed.
NON-STOP WORK
It was barely 10am on Friday (Jul 23) and Mdm Nurbaeti was already the third COVID-19 patient in Bogor to die on that day while isolating at home. She was the 95th death handled by the team since it was set up.
“On average, we can handle around five bodies in a day. There are even days when we have to handle nine to 11 bodies in a day,” senior volunteer Wahyu Trisnajaya told CNA.
“We work 24 hours a day. A call can come at 3am in the morning. We are dealing with an infected body. There is a chance that the dead might infect other people, so we have to move quickly.”
Wahyu Trisnajaya, a volunteer with Bogor City Deceased Evacuation and Mitigation Team. (Photo: Nivell Rayda)
And there is no sign that things are getting better. The number of daily infections across Indonesia currently average between 28,000 and 45,000, while the number of deaths continue to climb and break the previous record five times over the last seven days.
On Tuesday, the national death toll surpassed 2,000 for the first time since the pandemic began, with 30 deaths in Bogor, a record for the city.
Bogor City Health Agency said 21 of them died in hospitals across the city and nine while self-isolating at home.
The nature of the work and the conditions they have to put up with can be overwhelming for the Bogor City Deceased Evacuation and Mitigation Team, which is the only such volunteer group in Bogor. The volunteers do not get paid for their work.
“I haven’t gone home since Jul 4. We are so busy I barely sleep for more than two hours,” Mr Trisnajaya said at the volunteer group’s makeshift headquarters, a small function hall in the city centre.
Although the team managed to recruit 56 volunteers, only around 30 are active. “The rest have other things to do and can only help in their spare time,” said the 55-year-old retiree.
Of the 30, only 18 volunteers are directly involved in handling the bodies. The other 12 are in charge of taking calls from those in need of their help, doing administrative work or providing logistical support.
Nur Hasanah (left) and Aan Andriyani, volunteers from the Bogor City Deceased Evacuation and Mitigation Team, taking a rest. (Photo: Nivell Rayda)
“There are not that many people who are willing to do this. Not many are willing to go near a dead COVID-19 patient,” said Mr Trisnajaya.
Of the total, eight are female. The lack of female team members presents its own challenges.
According to Islamic practice, only next of kin and persons of the same gender as the deceased are allowed to assist in the burial rites. This means the female volunteers in the group have to make themselves available round the clock, in case the deceased is a female.
“I stay at the headquarters because you never know when our help is needed,” said volunteer Nur Hasanah, 37.
Mdm Hasanah is a mother of three and a seasoned rescue worker. Having volunteered in countless disaster areas before, being around dead bodies is nothing new to her.
But dealing with a pandemic like COVID-19 is a totally different experience.
“In the beginning I was fearful. This is different. This is COVID-19. I am not dealing with an ordinary body. They had virus in them,” the housewife said.
Nur Hasanah is a volunteer for the Bogor City Deceased Evacuation and Mitigation Team. (Photo: Nivell Rayda)
“I do feel a bit anxious. I worry that I might get infected. I have a family waiting for me at home. But as long as we take all the necessary precautions and protect ourselves we should be fine. And thankfully, so far, none of us had ever got infected.”
DIFFICULT SITUATIONS ABOUND
All members of the team are trained to perform burial rites in different religions. It can be as straightforward as dressing the deceased in their best clothes for Christians or non-Muslims, to something that requires specific procedures such as those prescribed in the Islamic practice.
Whatever the case maybe, the volunteers involved understand that their responsibility requires a certain degree of people skills such as in negotiation and persuasion especially with family members, relatives or neighbours.
Mdm Hasanah recalled a time when she had to get involved in a long argument with family members, who insisted that the deceased must be buried at the family’s private cemetery instead of a burial ground dedicated for COVID-19 patients.
Volunteers from Bogor City Deceased Evacuation and Mitigation Team inputting data into their computer. (Photo: Nivell Rayda)
The team must also delicately handle those who wish to help with the burial ceremony but insist on not wearing the personal protective gear.
“This is the reason why I stay at the headquarters. Most of the female volunteers are college students. They know how to perform the burial rites but they lack the experience to handle these types of situations,” she said.
Senior volunteer Mr Trisnajaya said the team had encountered every imaginable situation.
“We had to deal with all sorts of people. There are those who are so paranoid they wouldn’t help carry the coffin even though they have been wrapped and sterilised,” he recalled.
Family members and neighbours performing a prayer before the coffin of a woman who died while isolating at home in Bogor, Indonesia. (Photo: Nivell Rayda)
There are also COVID-19 deniers who refused to believe that their neighbours or loved ones had died of the virus. They would not let the deceased be buried using the COVID-19 protocol and insisted that they should be left alone to arrange the funeral themselves.
“We have to know when to be firm and when to step back. The last thing we want is to get into a heated argument which could lead to physical violence,” Mr Trisnajaya said.
The team had encountered such incidents twice so far.
“We got the family to sign a written statement explaining that we had tried to do our job but the family refused. We then notified the authorities what had happened. Thankfully, they didn't turn into COVID-19 clusters,” he said.
For volunteer Aan Andriyani, she sometimes feels angry at the complacent attitude displayed by some people towards COVID-19.
“It makes you feel unappreciated. We work long hours in protective gear, risking our health and yet some people don’t believe in COVID-19, some don’t think it is that dangerous and ignore health protocols,” the 44-year-old housewife told CNA.
“All I can do is focus on my job. It is a moral and religious duty to perform burial rites for the dead. Not many people are willing to do this to a COVID-19 patient. Not many people know how to do it safely. This is a calling for me.”
GOVERNMENT PROMISES MORE HOSPITAL BEDS
By the time the body of Mdm Nurbaeti was ready to be laid to rest, 90 minutes had passed since the team first arrived in the neighbourhood.
After the ritual bathing of the body and the water used safely disposed of, her body was then wrapped in the white burial shroud before it was again wrapped in a clear plastic sheet.
As required by the COVID-19 health protocol, all dead patients must be placed in orange body bags before their coffins are closed and sealed.
The ambulance that carried Mdm Nurbaeti's coffin then carefully navigated its way down the tight alleyway, ready to bring it to the cemetery.
At least a dozen plots of grave had been freshly dug by an excavator by the time the ambulance arrived at the Kayumanis Public Cemetery, some 15 minutes away from Mdm Nurbaeti’s house. Cries from grieving family members and relatives accompanied the solemn occasion as her body was gently lowered into the grave.
A woman mourns the death of her mother who died after battling with COVID-19 while isolating at home in Bogor, Indonesia. (Photo: Nivell Rayda)
Just as Mdm Nurbaeti’s funeral was about to be over, an ambulance arrived, bringing yet another body of COVID-19 patient.
“This whole section of the cemetery was opened early this month. This section is specifically for COVID-19 patients,” one of the cemetery’s gravediggers, Mr Ahmad Ridwan, told CNA.
In a matter of weeks, at least 100 bodies had been buried at the cemetery and there was only room left for dozens more, he added.
Since Indonesia imposed the emergency community restrictions on Jul 3, the city of Bogor reported deaths of more than 400 COVID-19 patients, one-fourth of them while isolating at home.
Bogor mayor Bima Arya told reporters on Monday that he expected the daily death toll to decrease in the coming days, particularly after new hospital beds were added and more people were vaccinated.
“Eighty-five per cent of those who died while in self isolation had not been vaccinated. Most are over 50 years old and generally had underlying medical conditions,” said the mayor.
Mr Arya said several facilities in the city have been converted into COVID-19 isolation centres where patients can be treated as they wait for hospital beds to become available.
Mr Gusniawan, the volunteer coordinator, said he looks forward to a time when teams like his are no longer needed.
“Hopefully in one or two months, we will see cases declining and things returning to the way they were ... when we have zero patients (dying at home) in Bogor,” he said.
“But as long as we are still needed, we’ll be here.”
ADELAIDE: Myanmar is facing a catastrophic health crisis that could have ramifications not just for the country’s long-suffering people, but across the region as well.
The country is experiencing a major spike in COVID-19 cases — what one Doctors Without Borders official referred to as “uncontrolled community spread” — fuelled by the military junta’s gross mismanagement of the crisis and a collapsing health sector.
The military regime’s official statistics are running at around 6,000 cases and 300 deaths per day, but no one believes these are accurate. This is, after all, the junta that staged a military coup in February and then tried to argue it was constitutionally valid.
With only 2.8 per cent of Myanmar’s 54 million people fully vaccinated, there are now concerns the country could become a “COVID-19 super-spreader state”. And this could lead to the emergence of new variants, says the UN’s special rapporteur for human rights in Myanmar who said:
“This is very, very dangerous for all kinds of reasons … This is a region that is susceptible to even greater suffering as a result of Myanmar becoming a super-spreader state.”
The UN says a “perfect storm” of factors is fuelling the deepening health crisis. Medical staff have been on strike as part of the civil disobedience movement against the coup.
Oxygen and other medical equipment are increasingly expensive and in short supply. Even getting an oxygen concentrator into Myanmar is not straightforward, though Singapore said this week it will rush 200 machines into the country.
Most troublingly, at least 157 medics, including the former head of Myanmar’s COVID-19 vaccination programme, have been arrested and charged with high treason. In Yangon, military personnel have pretended to be COVID-19 patients in need of emergency treatment, then arrested the doctors who came to help.
Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients receive treatment at the hospital in Cikha, Myanmar, May 28, 2021. (Photo: REUTERS)
Reliable figures on the infection rate are impossible to obtain, but civil society groups that assist with cremations and funeral services in Yangon say they are seeing up to 1,000 uncounted COVID-19 deaths a day in that city alone. The national total may be several thousand per day.
One reason it’s impossible to get an accurate count of cases is the extremely low rate of testing. There are only around 15,000 COVID-19 tests being conducted per day in a country of 54 million people. The tests are, however, returning a positive rate of around 37 per cent, or 370 positives for every 1,000 tests.
It’s also believed nearly 50 prisoners at the crowded, notorious Insein Prison are now infected.
These prisoners include top leaders from Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, doctors connected with the civil disobedience movement, and foreigners like Australian academic Sean Turnell, an adviser to Suu Kyi who was arrested by the junta after the coup.
Another adviser and lawyer to Suu Kyi, Nyan Win, died last week after being infected with COVID-19 at Insein.
THE POOR ARE SUFFERING
Such a catastrophic health situation is exacerbating Myanmar’s inequalities. Poorer people are less able to socially distance and less likely to get tested and receive meaningful treatment. They suffer invisibly, often in silence.
In a report published this week, the World Bank estimated Myanmar’s economy would contract by 18 per cent this year due to the effects of the pandemic and the coup. The share of people living in poverty is also likely to more than double by the beginning of 2022, compared to 2019.
The ethnic minority regions of the country may well be disproportionately suffering, too. Since the coup, conflicts have intensified across the country between the military and the ethnic armed organisations and pro-democracy advocates that have joined them, causing immense social dislocation.
The UN refugee agency estimates 200,000 people were internally displaced from February to June, bringing the total of displaced people in the country to 680,000. These marginalised groups are even less likely to have access to medical treatment.
These figures are also not taking into account the refugees outside the country, such as the million Rohingya languishing in the cramped refugee camps in Bangladesh. The Bangladesh government has said it will begin vaccinating the Rohingya next month.
(Why not allow dining in for those vaccinated when MICE and other big events can continue? Public health experts discuss whether new rules in Singapore mean prior plans to live normally with COVID-19 will shift on this week’s Heart of the Matter podcast.)
INTERNATIONAL AID DESPERATELY NEEDED
When Cyclone Nargis killed 140,000 people in Myanmar in 2008, the country’s previous military regime received wide-ranging offers of assistance from ASEAN, the regional bloc, and the wider international community.
But since the coup, Western aid to Myanmar has been redirected through non-government groups, causing hold-ups. The UN says the junta has also yet to account for US$350 million in COVID-19 aid the International Monetary Fund sent to Myanmar just days before the coup in February.
The country hasn’t received vaccine doses since May, though China pledged to send 6 million doses by August, with the first batch arriving last week. China may end up being the most proactive donor, since it is worried about an outbreak along its shared border with Myanmar.
Optimists say this may be a time for reconciliation and for everyone in Myanmar to unite against the common enemy of COVID-19. Yet it is hard to imagine that happening right now, when the military’s own mishandling of the pandemic has generated so much outrage from the population.
Protesters hold posters during a protest against the military coup in Myanmar, outside the headquarters of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), in Jakarta on Mar 12, 2021. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana)
What can be done? Perhaps Australia, which we are told is “awash” in AstraZeneca vaccines, could make rapid moves to send desperately needed supplies to Myanmar via its non-government partners. It would be a bold and impressive diplomatic move.
There is then the need for the international community to confront the Myanmar generals for their appalling mishandling of the country since the coup. By seizing control from elected leaders, they have impoverished their own people, sparked new conflicts and exacerbated the damage done by a global pandemic.
The heartbreaking reality is the people of Myanmar have been left without the prospect of significant relief at the worst possible time.
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Adam Simpson is Senior Lecturer, University of South Australia. Nicholas Farrelly is Professor and Head of Social Sciences, University of Tasmania. This commentary first appeared in The Conversation.
KUALA LUMPUR (REUTERS) - Malaysia's special parliamentary sitting will be cut short after the detection of Covid-19 infections in the building, the legislative body said on Saturday (July 31), potentially providing relief for embattled Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.
The monarch had asked for the revocation of ordinances related to the handling of the pandemic to be debated in Parliament, but the government said that was not necessary.
Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim had filed a no-confidence motion against Mr Muhyiddin following comments from the much-revered king.
Eleven Covid-19 infections were detected in Parliament on Thursday.
Under PM Muhyiddin's order, the final day of the special session on Monday (Aug 2) will be postponed, the Parliament secretary's office said in a notice.
The postponement was in line with recommendations from health ministry officials who warned that Parliament was at risk of the spread of Covid-19, the notice said. It did not say when parliament would reconvene.
The royal rebuke is the latest crisis to hit Mr Muhyiddin who has governed with a razor-thin majority and leads an unstable ruling coalition since coming to power in March 2020.
Malaysia is a constitutional monarchy in which the king has a largely ceremonial role, carrying out his duties on advice from the prime minister and Cabinet.
Some analysts say the monarch has discretion over whether an emergency should be declared, however.
Consent from the king, who is revered across Malaysia's multi-ethnic population, is also needed to name a prime minister.
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s special parliamentary meeting next Monday (Aug 2) will be postponed to a future date due to COVID-19 cases being detected in parliament, said the secretary of the House of Representatives.
In a statement issued on Saturday, Mr Nizam Mydin Bacha Mydin said the notice to postpone the meeting was issued by Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin in line with Standing Order 11(3).
“This postponement is in line with the health director-general's proposal and current risk assessment conducted by the health ministry, as a result of the latest developments regarding COVID-19 spread, where the health ministry is of the opinion that the Malaysian parliament is a locality at risk for the spread of COVID-19,” according to the statement.
“As such, I have been ordered by Deputy Speaker Mohd Rashid Hasnon to deliver this notice to all MPs that the house will not sit on Monday, Aug 2.”
The five-day special parliamentary meeting was supposed to allow the government to brief lawmakers about its COVID-19 response and pave the way for an eventual hybrid parliament sitting. The last day of the meeting was scheduled to take place on Aug 2.
However, the proceedings were overshadowed by an announcement by de facto law minister Takiyuddin Hassan that the emergency ordinances introduced during the state of emergency had been revoked on Jul 21.
In a rare reprimand, the palace said that the government had revoked the ordinances without the king’s consent. "His Majesty stressed that the minister's statement in the parliament on Jul 26 is not accurate and has misled the MPs,” it said.
On Thursday afternoon, the parliament building went into lockdown after it was announced that two COVID-19 cases were detected there. All lawmakers were made to undergo screening while the proceedings were postponed.
The parliament meeting was later adjourned at 5.15pm when the deputy speaker said that two more COVID-19 cases were detected.
Ten of these cases were detected using antigen saliva test kits, while the remaining case was detected through a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, he said.
BEIJING (AFP, REUTERS) - China raced on Saturday (July 31) to contain its worst coronavirus outbreak in months as fresh cases were reported in two more parts of the country including the sprawling megacity of Chongqing.
The highly contagious Delta variant has already been confirmed in the capital Beijing and four other provinces, prompting mass testing and putting more than one million people under lockdown.
The National Health Commission (NHC) said there were 55 new cases as of Friday, including 30 local ones, compared with 21 the previous day. There were no new deaths.
The other 25 cases were imported infections originating overseas.
A majority of the local cases were reported in eastern Jiangsu province, the authority said.
The outbreak is geographically the largest in several months, challenging China’s aggressive containment efforts, which have relied on mass testing, lockdowns and swift contact tracing.
The new cases reported on Saturday in Fujian province and Chongqing included one patient who visited the tourist city of Xi’an, Shaanxi province, and an international cargo crew member at Xiamen Airlines who recently travelled from abroad, authorities said.
State media footage broadcast on Saturday showed residents of Chongqing, a municipality that is home to more than 30 million people, queueing up for virus tests.
Authorities in one city district ordered emergency mass testing late on Friday for people who had visited venues linked to confirmed cases.
Nanjing city authorities ordered all tourist attractions and cultural venues not to open on Saturday, prompted by the spike in domestic transmissions.
China has previously boasted of its success in snuffing out the pandemic within its borders after imposing the world’s first virus lockdown in early 2020 as Covid-19 seeped out of Wuhan, then the disease’s epicentre of the country.
But an outbreak this month driven by the fast-spreading Delta variant has thrown that record into jeopardy, potentially dampening China’s summer tourist season and holiday consumption.
The tourist city of Zhangjiajie in Hunan province, where a handful of cases attended a single theatre performance, locked down all 1.5 million residents and shut all tourist attractions on Friday, according to an official notice.
At least 18 cases have been traced back to the city, the state tabloid Global Times reported. Famed for its striking rock formations, the city is where part of the Avatar blockbuster was filmed.
In Beijing’s Changping district, where two locally transmitted cases have been found, 41,000 people in nine housing communities were placed under lockdown on Thursday.
China’s top disciplinary watchdog has blamed Nanjing airport officials for “poor supervision and unprofessional management” including not separating cleaning staff who worked on international flights from those on domestic flights.
Most of the early Nanjing patients had been vaccinated, a senior doctor in the city was quoted as saying by local media last week, leading online users to question the efficacy of domestic vaccines.
More than 1.6 billion vaccine doses have so far been administered nationwide as of Friday, the NHC said. It does not provide figures of how many people have been fully vaccinated.
Health officials have said they are aiming for 80 per cent of the population to be fully vaccinated by year-end.
KUALA LUMPUR (THE STAR/ ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - Malaysia's Health Ministry reported 17,786 coronavirus cases on Saturday (July 31), a record number of infections.
The total number of cases in the country since the start of the pandemic rose to 1,113,272.
As the urgency to inoculate the population heightens, National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (NIP) coordinating minister Khairy Jamaluddin said walk-in vaccinations will now start on Aug 2 instead of Aug 1.
Walk-in vaccinations in the Klang Valley will begin on Aug 2 and will cater to those above 40 and people with co-morbidities first.
Mr Khairy said that walk-in vaccinations will start to open for those above the age of 18 on Aug 5.
"To avoid any fake news, not all vaccination centres (PPVs) will receive walk-ins," he said at a press conference on Saturday (July 31).
He added that the list of vaccination centres open for walk-ins will be issued by the Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF) on Saturday.
He added that the walk-in vaccinations will be on a "first-come-first-serve" basis that will depend on the PPV's capacity.
"We will inform the public of the capacity of the PPV on any given day. Those who did not receive the vaccine on that day, will be prioritised on the next day," he said.
Mr Khairy also said the walk-in vaccinations will cater to those who have not received an appointment yet, those who previously cancelled their vaccination appointment and those who have not registered, among others.
"We are confident that by tomorrow, 99 per cent of adults in the Klang Valley will receive their appointments," he said, adding that the walk-in vaccinations will be to "mop-up" those who are the outliers.
