THE Government should allow the re-opening of non-essential sectors with fully vaccinated workforce in stages.
This comes amid news that the recent progress of the country’s vaccination rate could push the country to move to Phase 2 of the National Recovery Plan (NRP) from as early as this month.
“Allowing more non-essential sectors to operate would also encourage more people to get vaccinated and speed up economic recovery,” Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) president Professor Datuk Dr Subramaniam Muniandy told FocusM.
He, however, acknowledged the fact that fully vaccinated individuals can still contract the coronavirus.
“Fully vaccinated or otherwise, the standard operating procedures (SOPs) will still need to be strictly observed,” Dr Subramaniam pointed out.
“The vaccines protect against severe illness and hospitalisation. Studies show that fully vaccinated individuals who do get infected with COVID-19 are asymptomatic or experience mild symptoms that can be treated without the need for hospitalisation.”
As such, proper ventilation guidelines are crucial to prevent airborne transmission in the workplace.
“In certain sectors, double masking and the wearing of face shields should be part of the SOPs,” cautioned Dr Subramaniam. “There should also be SOPs for those taking cigarette breaks as there can be risks of exposure as well.”
As of July 30, the number of people who received at least the first dose stood at 20,014,549. From this number, 13,500,749 have received one dose while 6,514,070 have completed the two-dose regimen of the COVID-19 vaccine.
This also means that 57.7% of Malaysia’s adult population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, while 27.8% have received two doses.
In fact Prime Minister Tan Sri Mahiaddin Yassin told Parliament on Monday July 26 that Malaysia expects to reopen the economy and lift movement controls for most states as early as October 2021 as the country ramps up its COVID-19 Immunisation Programme (NIP).
“God willing, with continuous efforts to drive the recovery process and the immunisation programmes going smoothly, we expect most states to move into the fourth phase as early as October,” he said. – August 1, 2021.
