RAMPING up vaccination efforts to speed up herd immunity must be done on all fronts, and this includes allowing the private medical centres and private clinics to administer COVID-19 vaccines to inoculate those who can afford to pay.
The move will no doubt expedite the country’s target of immunising 80% of its population (or almost 27 million people) and achieve herd immunity by February 2022.
As of June 10, only 8.7% of Malaysia’s total population, or 2.8 million people, has received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while a total of 4,102,936 doses have been administered so far.
The country is currently at Phase 2 of the National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme, which is currently progressing at snail’s pace.
However, according to data provided by Science, Technology and Innovation minister Khairy Jamaluddin, only 855,124 out of 2,246,257 registered senior citizens have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
This translates to only 38% since the vaccination exercise for senior citizens started under Phase 2 in mid-April.
With Phase 3 of the programme – which is intended for the general population aged 18 and above – yet to begin, there are plenty of doubts about the country’s ability to hit the target of achieving herd immunity against COVID-19 by the projected timeline.
Having said that, the most logical solution would be to rope in private healthcare facilities to assist with the vaccination process. This could help tackle the long waiting period for those who are not in the second phase of the National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme (NIP).
But while the Government has recently given the green light for private health sectors to administer the vaccine, the number of complaints lately from private general practitioners (GPs) about Government bureaucracy red tape isn’t helping the situation one bit.
Earlier this month, the Malaysian Medical Association claimed that out of the 2,500 GP clinics registered with ProtectHealth Corporation (PHCorp), more than 1,800 have attended the necessary training, but only 184 are currently conducting COVID-19 vaccination.
This comprises only about 7% of the 2,500 GP clinics registered with PHCorp, the fully-owned company by the Ministry of Health managing private medical practitioners in NIP.
Why is this the case? The target here is to get more private healthcare facilities involved in the inoculation exercise, not hamper and tie them up with red tape and delaying the entire process altogether!
Allowing the private health sector to participate in the vaccination exercise is a good move, but this cannot be a one-step-forward-and-two-steps-back situation, with any progress in the vaccination exercise counterbalanced by more setbacks.
The Government, too, must be willing to ease up on the red tape that is preventing the sector from moving forward in the vaccination exercise.
After all, when it comes to fighting the war against the pandemic, all hands need to be on deck. – June 16, 2021
