M’sia Apologises for Empty COVID Jab; Categorised as ‘Human Error’

Imagine going to get your COVID-19 vaccination, all the while telling yourself that being protected against COVID-19 wins over your fear of needles.

Then, you’re told that you were administered an empty syringe, so you have to take it again.

All that pain, and for what?

Malaysia Confirms One Case of Empty COVID-19 Jab

On Friday (23 July), Malaysia’s Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin confirmed in a briefing that there has been one case of a person being injected with an empty syringe in its national vaccination programme.

He also acknowledged that there had been two cases where an extra dose of the COVID-19 vaccine was given to individuals after it was unclear whether they had been administered empty syringes.

According to Mr Khairy, the former empty syringe case—which had taken place in the northern state of Kedah—had been confirmed after a nurse admitted that she had been negligent due to exhaustion. He also assures that disciplinary action would be taken against the nurse.

Mr Khairy categorised these mistakes as a human error, saying that “Even if there’s one single error, that’s one error too many.”

“So for those cases where there was human negligence, I apologise to them. And, of course, we will do better,” he added.

Mr Khairy also announced that recipients of the COVID-19 vaccination will be allowed to record their vaccination process in order to prevent similar errors from happening.

So far, thirteen police reports have been lodged claiming to have been administered empty syringes too, said Mr Khairy. However, most reports have allegedly been found to either be false or inconclusive, he assured.

He then explained that some of these reports had been lodged by those who did not suffer from any side-effects after being administered the COVID-19 vaccine, reported the Malay Mail news portal.

However, Mr Khairy also stated: “I would like to advise the public to understand the context of these cases and to ensure that we preserve the integrity of the national immunisation programme.”

“And also the integrity of the thousands of nurses, doctors and front-liners who are risking their lives vaccinating at a rate of half a million a day,” he continued.

Malaysia’s Vaccination Progress

According to a post on the Malaysian Health Ministry’s Facebook page, the country has administered 16,024,916 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Malaysia’s Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin also said in a post on his own Facebook page that nearly half of the country’s adult population have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccination, with 21.8% having received both doses.

The Malaysian government had previously set a target of vaccinating all adults in the country by October.

This comes amid a spike in COVID-19 cases, with the country reporting more than 13,000 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday (22 July)—its second-highest daily tally since the start of the pandemic. It had also reported on Wednesday (21 July) 199 deaths due to COVID-19, a number which has become a new daily high for Malaysia since the pandemic started.

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