WITH COVID-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF) under fire for closing down several vaccination centres (PPVs), both the Health Ministry (MOH) and Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry (MOSTI) acknowledged that a random survey found that many Klang Valley dwellers have yet to receive their vaccination.
However, the ministries defended their decision to close down the PPVs anyway, saying it was made after considering various issues.
“We came up with the decision after studying PPVs’ capacity, vaccinations dished out, vaccine supply and the number of people who still needs to get inoculated.
“And people can still register for the COVID-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) through MySejahtera. For your information, most of the new registration are from foreigners, which needs us to embark on new measures to smoothen the process,” it said, in a statement.
The joint statement was signed by MOH director general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah and MOSTI chief secretary Datuk Dr Siti Hamisah Tapsir.
Last week, many medical professionals and politicians such as Klang MP Charles Santiago hurled brickbats at CITF for ordering the closure of 29 PPVs in Selangor, claiming the decision was made as a large proportion of the population has been fully inoculated and vaccine demand is expected to reduce.
These closures will happen throughout this month until the end of September, across nine districts.
Compounding to the problem, MOH had also stopped massive number of general practitioners (GPs) from administering COVID-19 vaccines under PICK.
At the time, Noor Hisham said that the decision to disallow GP’s participation was done contrary to his proposal.
Klang Valley vaccination exceeded 100% mark
Defending its move on stopping using services by GPs, CITF said that it had already managed to achieve its objective in inoculating as many people as possible and there was a need to redirect resources elsewhere.
“We like to reiterate that the measure was temporary in nature and in tandem with PICK’s objective, which is to speed up the vaccination process.
“From then on, the vaccination process will slow down as most people would have gotten their shots,” they noted.
In the Klang Valley alone, CITF said that 438,812 doses or 3.6% of the total vaccination was administered by 760 GPs, with 54 PPV handled by the Healthcare Organisation (HCO) where 45 of them hailing from GP consortiums, private clinic chains, private hospitals and university hospitals.
“And we laud their participation as it has helped most Klang Valley dwellers to get vaccinated. According to Department of Statistics Malaysia, 109.6% had received their first shot while at least 86% had received both shots.
“We suspect that the number exceeded 100% considering vaccinations given to foreigners and those living outside Klang Valley, who walked-in to our PPVs there,” it remarked. – Aug 26, 2021
