THE Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) believes that migrants should not be singled out when they show up at health facilities and vaccination centres (PPVs) to get their vaccinations, as it might hinder them from getting the vaccines altogether.
This is following a press statemen by Home Minister Hamzah Zainuddin that said the Government wants healthcare workers to notify security forces if undocumented migrants arrive at PPVs.
The association also mentioned how the coordinating minister of the National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) even encouraged migrants in the country to come forward to receive their vaccination shots for the sake of achieving herd immunity.
“During his tenure as the coordinating minister of the PICK programme, our Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin mentioned that the COVID-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF) guidelines have been approved to encourage such individuals to come forward for their vaccination, under the principles that ‘no one is safe until everyone is safe’ and ‘no wrong door policy’.
“The guidelines were implemented whilst taking into consideration of the various legislations in force at the time,” explained MMA president Dr Koh Kar Chai in a statement on Friday (Sept 24).
He also encouraged those who are not already registered with MySejahtera to undergo a process of documentation to enable them to be registered.
“However, the mention that health service providers are to inform security forces about the presence of undocumented migrants at health and vaccination centres will send them a wrong message,” Koh concluded. – Sept 25, 2021
