THE Malaysian Pharmacists Society (MPS) urged community pharmacists to volunteer themselves in the Malaysia Vaccine Support Volunteers (MyVAC) initiative to hasten the National COVID-19 Vaccination Programme (PICK).
“Let us all volunteer for the third phase of the PICK. The last phase requires massive support at the vaccination centres, totalling 605 places across the nation.
“This call is not only for community pharmacists but also to pharmacy undergraduates and academics in that area of expertise,” its president Amrahi Buang told FocusM.
On Jan 11, Amrahi urged the Government to categorise community pharmacists as frontliners, to get them vaccinated under the first phase of PICK.
“This is particularly important as community pharmacists are facing the public every day, both healthy and ill, and are at high risk of contracting COVID-19.
“With them vaccinated, the public can seek their professional consultation with utmost confidence. Community pharmacy service is recognised as an essential service in any form under the movement control order (MCO),” he was reported saying then.
Following the call, the Government recently categorised community pharmacists as frontliners but they would receive the vaccination under the second phase of the mass inoculation programme.
Touching on the Government’s decision, Amrahi said he was thankful for the recognition, adding community pharmacists should follow up on it.
“We have submitted our list to the Health Ministry (MOH) and I hope community pharmacists across Malaysia would contact their respective state health offices for further information.
“I was informed that community pharmacists in Kedah and Sarawak had been administered the first dose of COVID-19 vaccines (Comirnaty) recently. From our data, about 89% of the community pharmacists are ready for their shots,” he said.
Let community pharmacists help
On what community pharmacists can do for PICK, Amrahi said the former can play three roles to ensure the mass vaccination programme becomes a success story for Malaysia.
One role they can play, he stated, was getting involved in advocacy at their respective locality, to raise awareness on the importance of getting vaccinated and achieving herd immunity against COVID-19.
“They will help alleviate any concerns the public may have on the variety of vaccines used under PICK. Community pharmacists can also assist the people to register themselves using the MySejahtera app.
“And we need this because as of now, only 5,867,497 people have registered to get vaccinated, which is way below the Government’s target of inoculating 26.5 million people,” he mentioned.
Secondly, Amrahi added that community pharmacists could also participate in the pharmacovigilance process, by monitoring and reporting adverse event following immunisation (AEFI), as they are well-trained to do so.
“Until today, we still don’t have AERI reports despite already vaccinating 367,213 people, as per COVID-19 Vaccine Supply Special Committee (JKJAV) data,” he mentioned.
On the third matter, Amrahi said that community pharmacists could also be roped in to inoculate people at their nearest vaccination centre, under the last phase of PICK.
He added the Government could also consider bringing in pharmacists from other countries to speed up the vaccination process.
“According to the World Health Organization (WHO), over 36 nations have allowed their community pharmacists to administer COVID-19 vaccines to the public.
“Even the Philippines recently trained and allowed its community pharmacists to vaccinate its people. Therefore, MPS hopes that the Government would allow our 20,000-strong pharmacists across Malaysia to participate in the PICK,” Amrahi remarked. – March 21, 2021.
