MANY Malaysians have taken to social media in the past few weeks to complain about the slow pace of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout.
This is especially when the daily number of cases are on the rise again: yesterday, for instance, the country recorded 2,733 cases – the 13th day numbers have remained above the 2,000-case mark following a brief dip last month.
According to the Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF) a total of 1.3 million doses have been given in Malaysia as at 25 April.
Out of this number, 800,996 have received the first dose, and 504,165 have been fully vaccinated with the required two doses – that’s just approximately 1.5% of the 33 million people in Malaysia. That’s just a drop in the ocean!
Needless to say, there is urgent need for the Government to take another look at the existing strategies and mobilisation exercise to expedite the implementation of the National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme.
Previously, it was reported that the Government will allow its private healthcare providers to open negotiations to procure their own COVID-19 vaccine supplies. This is indeed a welcomed move to help speed up the vaccination process, and must be set in motion as soon as possible.
On this matter, National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme Coordinating Minister Khairy Jamaluddin has also warned that a private sector vaccine roll-out might only take place in the third or fourth quarter of 2021 due to the shortage of vaccine supply globally.
But speaking of the efforts to speed up the vaccination process, there is still much to be done to win over the ‘vaccine-cautious’, alongside those who have yet to register for the COVID-19 shots.
This includes educating members of the public on the safety and efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccines. At the moment, the lack of proper understanding of the vaccine is perhaps one of the reasons attributed to the low registration.
In this case, the Government must make use all available platforms and channels to clearly disseminate the Government’s overall plans, deadline and target to encourage registration.
As of April 28, only about 38.20% of adults (or about 9.3 million people) in Malaysia have registered on MySejahtera for their COVID-19 shots. – April 30, 2021
