Johor received a portion of the Covid-19 vaccine supply that arrived in the country today to be placed at four vaccine storage centres (VSC) in the state.
The supply, which is part of the first batch of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines, arrived in Johor Bahru from Singapore via the Johor Causeway.
Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba and Johor Menteri Besar Datuk Ir Hasni Mohammad were present on-site when the supplies arrived.
About 18,000 medical frontliners in Johor are expected to be vaccinated during the first phase of the National Covid-19 Vaccination Programme.
Johor Mentri Besar Datuk Hasni Mohammad said the state government is prepared to carry out the first phase of the programme that involves both medical and non-medical frontliners, starting from Feb 26.
"We have yet to know the final figure of those who will receive the vaccine during the first phase as we are still in the process of receiving a response from frontliners who are not from the Health Ministry.
Two private centres providing quarantine and treatment services for low-risk Covid-19 patients will be opening in Johor next month, further reducing the burden on public hospitals.
Johor Mentri Besar Datuk Hasni Mohammad today said the two private centres are in the final process of obtaining approval from the federal government and is confident they will be operational by March.
“The private Covid-19 Low-Risk Quarantine and Treatment Centres involves a hotel in Iskandar Puteri, while another is a staff hostel in the Kota Tinggi area. These two are the first private centres of its kind in Johor.
The Health Ministry today announced that 17 new Covid-19 clusters have been discovered in the last 24 hours, with the majority of them being located in Johor.
Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said that out of the 17 new clusters, 13 were workplace related, two were found in communities while one cluster was found in a detention centre and another in a high risk group.
“Of the 17 new clusters, six were discovered in Johor, three each in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor, two in Kedah and one each in Melaka, Sarawak and Perak,” he said.
The state's new low-risk quarantine and treatment centre (PKRC) at Pasir Gudang Indoor Stadium is expected to be fully operational on Feb 10.
State Health director Datuk Dr Aman Rabu said the PKRC was set up to accommodate the increasing number of Covid-19 patients in Johor.
He said the centre was modelled after the PKRC at the Malaysia Agro
Exposition Park (MAEPS) in Serdang.
The Sri Ledang National Service Training Centre (PLKN), Tangkak, will be made the second Covid-19 Low-Risk Treatment and Quarantine Centre (PKRC) in the state after the Pasir Gudang City Council (MBPG) Indoor Stadium which began operating today.
Mentri Besar Datuk Hasni Mohammad said this was part of the state government’s preparations in facing the rising number of positive cases of late.
“The number of beds and other facilities to be provided at the Sri Ledang PLKN Camp could not be determined yet during discussions with the National Disaster Management Agency (NADMA),” he said via a virtual news conference on the Covid-19 situation in the state.
Employers including factory operators should be more proactive in informing the District Health Centre’s (PKD) Operations Room if there are Covid-19 positive cases discovered at their premises.
Johor State Health Department’s senior principal assistant director (Primer), Dr Suhaila Abdul Shukor said this was crucial as information given early could help with quick action to curb the viral infection.
She said during the Covid-19 pandemic, the community could not afford to be passive by only waiting for calls from the Ministry of Health.
Poh Huat Resources Holdings Berhad said today that it was suspending the operations of subsidiary Poh Huat Furniture Industries (PHFI) Sdn Bhd that discovered 543 workers infected with Covid-19.
In its filing to Bursa Malaysia today, the firm said PHFI conducted a voluntary Covid-19 screening of its entire workforce on January 21 at all its factories in the Bukit Pasir Industrial Area in Muar, as a precaution against the worsening pandemic.
“The screening exercise which covered approximately 1,400 employees of all the plant premises and corporate offices of these subsidiaries in Bukit Pasir, Muar, Johor, revealed that 543 of employees have tested positive for Covid-19.
The Pandan wholesale market near Kangkar Tebrau, here will be closed for seven days beginning today to allow sanitisation work to be carried out at the market.
Johor State Health director Datuk Dr Aman Rabu when contacted by Bernama confirmed the closure, which will last till Jan 31, and informed that the notice to close the premises was issued by the Health Ministry (MOH) this morning.
He said the market would reopen after sanitisation work is completed in accordance with the scheduled date.
The Johor State Health Department is currently in the process of setting up 12 more Covid-19 Assessment Centres (CAC) to meet the needs of patients tested positive but have yet to be hospitalised.
State Environment and Health Committee chairman R. Vidyananthan said the centres were needed for patients to seek medical advice and pre-evaluation and so far there is only one CAC available in the state at Bukit Indah Health Clinic.
“Since the set-up of this CAC on January 10 until yesterday (January 19), a total of 1,876 patients have been referred to the centre and of the number, only 96 patients required hospitalisation,” he said in a statement today.
The enhanced movement control order for two localities in Johor will be extended from Jan 16 to 29 as there is still a high number of active cases, says Senior Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob (pic).
The localities are Kejora Juara workers hostel in Muar and Westlite workers hostel in Senai.
Ismail Sabri said that the National Security Council, in a special meeting, had agreed to extend the enhanced MCO for the Kejora Juara workers' hostel as there are still 1,404 active cases there.
The enhanced movement control order (MCO) imposed at the Westlife workers hostel in Tampoi Jaya industrial park in Johor Baru have been extended until Jan 22.
Senior Minister (Security) Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said the enhanced MCO at the hostel was initially slated to end on Friday (Jan 8), but the Health Ministry confirmed that the rate of Covid-19 infection there is still high.
Johor