Johor to roll out Covid-19 vaccination app for 100,000 people in Malaysia who commute to Singapore

The Johor state government will roll out a Covid-19 vaccination app aimed at Malaysians who commute between Malaysia and Singapore.

Johor Menteri Besar Hasni Mohammad said in a Facebook post on Sunday (April 4) that for a start, 100,000 people are recommended to register for their vaccination through the ImmuPlan Johor app.

“Any updates will be announced from time to time,” he said. “I hoped this will help in the efforts to reopen the Malaysia-Singapore border and restore Johor’s economic prowess.”

He said this after receiving a visit from Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin on Sunday afternoon. Mr Khairy is also the Coordinating Minister for Malaysia’s National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme.

On March 23, Singapore’s Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan met his Malaysian counterpart Hishammuddin Hussein in Putrajaya and discussions were held on mutual vaccine certification to aid cross-border travel.

In a joint statement, Dr Balakrishnan and Datuk Seri Hishammuddin said they had discussed “their respective national vaccination roll-out plans which are under way in Malaysia and Singapore, and how this could facilitate cross-border travel between both countries in the near future”.

The discussions took place less than two months after Singapore suspended its Reciprocal Green Lane cross-border travel scheme with Malaysia following a spike in Covid-19 cases across the Causeway at the start of the year.

Malaysia brought the outbreak under control last year, only to see cases surging in a third wave that started in September.

The spike in cases saw Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin reimposing nationwide travel curbs in January.

He also requested the Malaysian King to impose a national emergency, which was declared on Jan 12 and is set to last until Aug 1.

The number of active cases – those being treated for Covid-19 in hospitals or at government centres – reached as high as 52,000 in early February.

But the number has since fallen, standing at 14,509 on Sunday, as more people recovered and the number of new infections fell this month.

After a high of 5,728 daily cases on Jan 30, Malaysia has recorded just over 1,000 new cases a day for the past few weeks, with 1,349 cases recorded on Sunday.

The plateauing of daily cases has been accompanied by Malaysia’s Covid-19 vaccine roll-out, which started on Feb 24.

Overall, about seven million people in Malaysia have registered for vaccination, representing about 22 per cent of the total population of 32 million.

So far, 698,000 doses of vaccine have been administered, covering 0.7 per cent of the population.