PETALING JAYA: With or without a minister, the pace of the Covid-19 vaccination programme has to be ramped up as there are states complaining that they do not have enough vaccines, said Malaysian Public Health Physicians’ Association president Datuk Dr Zainal Ariffin Omar.
“We should be increasing our coverage as much as possible from 60%, even up to 90%, in a short time frame. This is very important and critical for pandemic control,” he said when contacted.
Whether there is a minister in charge or otherwise, the virus does not take a break and does not have any political affiliations, he said.
As such, Dr Zainal said the ministries that are handling the vaccination programme have to continue vaccinating the public at a much faster pace and have to ensure there are adequate vaccines for the people.
Failure to do so, said Dr Zainal, would give rise to new variants and there would be a re-emergence of the pandemic as the current vaccination coverage nationwide is still low.
“Now we can see there is a downward trend, so we need to maintain this momentum,” he said.
Dr Zainal said if a new prime minister is sworn in, the first agenda for this person would be to manage the pandemic.
“The person can continue the good policies from the previous government but we also need more improvement in terms of coordination and the use of experts who are not from within the government. We need to mobilise the community in the private sector,” he said, adding that neutral, non-partisan people are really needed.
Datuk Dr Zulkifli Ismail, chairman of the Technical Committee of the Immunise4Life programme, said that it is crucial that the pace of the vaccination programme is increased.
“We now need to push on and provide equitable access to all in the country. The former prime minister promised in his speech that there will be enough vaccines for everyone and these have to go to everyone, wherever they may be,” he said, adding that appreciation should be given to former minister Khairy Jamaluddin for his role in the vaccination programme.
Dr Zulkifli said there is a need to look at the disproportionate distribution by state and ramp up where uptake is low.
“The vaccination programme has been manned by people on the ground so with or without a Cabinet, people who are working on the ground will continue to give the vaccines. The policies that have been drawn up need to be followed,” he said, adding that the managers in the Health Ministry, ProtectHealth and other agencies need to continuously monitor the situation.
He said that the time will come when the country needs to face those who are vaccine hesitant and those who refuse to be vaccinated. As such, a new approach in communication is needed.
Dr Zulkifli added that there would be a need to share data that shows significant drops in cases, ICU admissions and deaths in areas that have reached the threshold of vaccination in their communities, such as Sarawak and Labuan.
“The Klang Valley will start to see that inflection in the graph soon, provided we cover all foreign workers and take care of their domiciliary issues, in addition to vaccinating them,” he said.
As of Aug 16, a total of 28,312,631 doses of the vaccines were administered – with 17,252,314 being first doses and 11,060,317 being second doses.
This translates to 47.2% of the adult population that has been fully vaccinated and 73.7% that has received at least one dose.
Medical Practitioners Coalition Association of Malaysia president Dr Raj Kumar Maharajah believed that the vaccination programme is in place and civil servants can carry out what has been planned, with or without a minister.
“I believe the civil servants and healthcare professionals are well experienced and mature. The vaccination programme will go on,” he said.