By Lim Lip Eng
I REFER to the news report yesterday about the Phase 4 Vaccination Programme announced by the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Khairy Jamaluddin.
According to the minister, Phase 4 vaccination programme will start soon from June 14. This will include people who are in manufacturing, export, logistics and transport, energy, utilities industries, among others.
However, Khairy has failed to mention or include another group of people who have always been on the frontline to keep our environment clean and safe since the outbreak of COVID-19 in March, 2020. They are the street cleaners, garbage collectors and security guards.
We want to know, if they are being left out again, from the priority list this round, when they will be expected to be vaccinated.
Their contribution to our country is irreplaceable and to call them unsung heroes is not at all exaggerating.
The street cleaners, for example, are constantly in touch with the household wastes (contaminated face masks), making them particularly vulnerable to the spread of the virus.
So are the security guards who are always in contact with members of the public in both shopping malls and multi-storey residential buildings.
To neglect them would be an injustice committed. Because of their vulnerability and their constant contact with the public, they should be given the due treatments, especially the early COVID-19 vaccination.
The earlier they are inoculated; the lesser risk they could spread the virus in the neighbourhoods they work.
It is a shame, therefore, if the Government fails to look into their welfare, especially when so many of them do not have the proper safety gears to protect them against the infection of the COVID-19 virus, and they, in return, infect others in the community. – June 10, 2021
Lim Lip Eng is the MP for Kepong.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
