Elected reps will be among early Covid-19 vaccine recipients

 

Both government and opposition MPs and assemblypersons will be among the first recipients of the Covid-19 vaccine.

This is in addition to frontliners like healthcare workers, security personnel and welfare officials.

Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said this morning that elected representatives will be eligible to receive the vaccine under Phase 1, which kicks off on Feb 26.

“The Covid-19 Vaccine Supply Access Guarantee Special Committee studied the matter and recognised that those who usually meet the rakyat at the grassroots level are politicians - MPs and state assemblypersons.

“Because of the nature of their work, we agreed that MPs and state assemblypersons, regardless of what side they are on - government or opposition - will be given the vaccine in Phase 1 to allow them to carry out their work safely and effectively,” he said in a press conference.

Muhyiddin announced this after unveiling the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme Guidebook.

The press conference was conducted at the Prime Minister’s Office in Putrajaya with the media in separate rooms from the prime minister, Health Minister Dr Adham Baba and Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin.

Of the 500,000 Pfizer-Biontech vaccines to be administered in Phase 1, Khairy said that 300,000 will be reserved for medical frontliners.

The other 200,000 vaccines would be allocated for non-medical frontliners like security personnel, welfare officials and politicians.

Phase 1 of the programme will run until April.

Phase 2 will run from April to August and involve 9.4 million people classified as high-risk groups. These groups include the differently-abled, those above 60 years old and those with comorbidities such as heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure.

Phase 3 will run from May to February 2022 for all other Malaysians aged 18 and above.

Others can apply for Phase 1

Aside from the groups mentioned above, Muhyiddin said the government is open to considering requests from groups like the media and teachers to be vaccinated in Phase 1.

“We will take into consideration all those requests,” he said when asked about the recent appeals by the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) and the National Union of the Teaching Profession (NUTP).

“As far as I am concerned, those people that you mentioned earlier, they can be given the vaccine earlier [...] because their job and the way they manage their day-to-day operations involve a lot of people, and we believe they are at risk if they are not vaccinated.

“We will then consider (them) as among the first recipients of the vaccine,” he elaborated.

National Covid-19 Immunisation Guidebook:

 - Mkini