FOLLOWING a plea from an e-hailing driver regarding the dangers of exposure to COVID-19 infections while being on the job, Segambut MP Hannah Yeoh is calling out ministers who should have taken care of this issue within their respective jurisdictions.
“We have all seen photos of thousands of patients visiting the Covid-19 Assessment Centre (CAC) daily and if they choose e-hailing services to take them there, surely the Government ought to protect these industry players from catching the infection and infecting others,” she said in a statement today.
She also mentioned her surprise that the e-hailing drivers and delivery riders are not treated as frontliners despite being categorised as essential service providers in every movement control order (MCO) implemented since 2020.
“It grieves me to see that many of the 11,000 COVID-19 cases daily could have been prevented if only there was coordination, competency and care exercised by these Cabinet Ministers. Again, this isn’t rocket science,” she added.
Yeoh also suggested three urgent steps that must be taken to protect an estimated 200,000 e-hailing drivers and delivery riders:
Vaccination: The Ministry of Transport and the COVID-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF) must immediately vaccinate these drivers and delivery riders who are transporting thousands of people, food boxes and parcels from various locations daily.
Ventilation: The Ministry of Health (MOH) should provide guidance and encouragement on ventilation for these e-hailing rides. It is crucial for those transporting thousands of customers to CAC centres across Malaysia and should have been done earlier.
Integration: MySejahtera needs to embrace the open data concept by sharing its data with relevant industry players. While the Government assures that personal information will only be used for the purpose of managing and mitigating COVID-19 outbreak, Yeoh believes that the data should be shared in order to provide the drivers with more information regarding the customers’ COVID-19 status. Thus, creating another level of awareness and protection that could avoid from spreading infection.
“As such, I call upon these Ministers who can immediately fix this and I will name each one lest no one in Putrajaya would act, namely Wee Ka Siong (Agensi Pengangkutan Awan Darat), Khairy Jamaluddin (National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme) and Adham Baba (MOH).
“Perhaps the Selangor state government and other state governments can and should beat their Federal counterpart to it in arranging for vaccination for these e-hailing frontliners,” she concluded. – July 15, 2021
