PLEASE include community pharmacists in the list of individuals who are qualified to get booster COVID-19 vaccine shots, said the Malaysian Pharmacists Society (MPS).
“In reference to its minister Khairy Jamaluddin’s announcement to allow booster vaccine shots for high-risk groups and frontliners, I urge the MOH to include community pharmacists in the list along with general practitioners,” its president Amrahi Buang told FocusM.
Yesterday, Khairy announced that the MOH is the midst of developing guidelines on third doses and booster shots for COVID-19 vaccines, which will be tabled in the next COVID-19 Vaccine Supply Access Guarantee Special Committee (JKJAV) meeting.
“I’m confident that we can start giving the third dose first and then the booster shots starting from next month, once we get views and clinical guidelines from experts,” The Star reported him as saying.
The Rembau MP added that Pfizer has made a registration with the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA) for its dossier on third and booster shots.
On that note, Amrahi again reminded the Government to utilise the services of community pharmacists to inoculate citizens, to ensure the booster shots are made accessible to the public.
He added that the MPS, in partnership with Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), had developed the Certified Training Programme on Immunisation for Pharmacists (CTPIP) to ensure community pharmacists are competent to administer vaccines.
“With more mega vaccination centres (PPVs) being closed as Malaysia exceeds the landmark 80% vaccination rate, it is high time community pharmacists are included as vaccinators. Besides, administering vaccine shots is no rocket science!” Amrahi quipped.
Empower community pharmacists
On related matter, the MPS official urged the Government to allow community pharmacists to authorise saliva test kits for the travellers, as opposed to recognising the ones from medical practitioners alone.
“The National Security Council (NSC) had authorised the use of COVID-19 saliva test kits results before a traveller can depart to Labuan, which is good as the test kit is cheaper than the RT-PCR test and is readily available at community pharmacies.
“However, according to the SOP as of Sept 21, only registered medical practitioners in the private sector as well as health officers from MOH can endorse the results of the saliva test kits.
“Therefore, MPS urges the Government to empower community pharmacists to authorise the saliva self-test kits as well.
“It is for the convenience of travellers as community pharmacists are the most accessible healthcare providers and certainly more than qualified to interpret its results,” Amrahi stressed.
He added: “With the sales of test-kit getting liberalised, suppliers should print or provide a QR code on the packaging of test kits, which links to instruction videos and infographics in multiple languages for public convenience.” – Sept 25, 2021
