Selangor rep urges state to revise vaccine jab fee

A Selangor state assemblyman has urged Menteri Besar Amirudin Shari to review the charges imposed on employers to vaccinate their workers, after many in the state’s industrial sector said they would rather opt for cheaper alternatives offered by the federal government.

Haniza Talha said the RM350 fee under Selvax, the vaccination programme carried out through a state-linked company, was too high and would slow down efforts to reach herd immunity in Selangor.

“This clearly burdens the employers who have to pay the cost of injections for their employees.

“During this challenging pandemic situation, it is not right to take advantage and reap profits multiple times,” she said in a statement.

Yesterday, MalaysiaNow reported that the fee imposed by Selvax was eight times higher than that of Pikas, the massive industrial vaccination drive launched last month by Putrajaya which charges only RM45 per worker.

Some middle-scale employers said they planned to combine with other companies to qualify for Pikas’ condition of a minimum of 1,000 workers to undertake on-site vaccination.

The Selvax programme targets one million workers, and Amirudin had said that the higher fee was due to other costs such as payments for staff and vaccination centres.

MalaysiaNow has learnt that a two-dose vaccine would cost RM160, and that the price is lower if the purchase is made in bulk.

Under Pikas, RM15 goes to the cost of managing vaccines while RM30 is for costs related to the vaccination centre.

MalaysiaNow has failed to obtain an explanation from Selangor government leaders tasked with battling the Covid-19 pandemic in the state.

Instead, Selangor exco Rodziah Ismail, who is tasked with Selvax, referred to a report which quoted the menteri besar as denying that the state was profiteering from Selvax.