Now you know why bigger is not better, says Najib

 

A check 40 minutes later by the couple who shared the earlier viral video, showed huge crowds still standing close to each other, with no one managing them.

PETALING JAYA: Najib Razak says his aversion to mega PPVs has now been proven right, after a video went viral showing huge crowds that were not adhering to physical distancing outside a vaccination centre (PPV) in Kuala Lumpur this morning.

Noting that the number of new Covid-19 cases has reached 20,000 a day, the former prime minister also pointed out that the country now had the highest rates (per capita) for new Covid-19 cases and deaths in the world.

“We are still like this? This is why I am not fond of mega PPVs,” he said in a Facebook post, in which he also reposted an article about the viral video taken outside the PPV.

“It’s better to have private clinics, large-scale drive-throughs and smaller community centres which are spread out (to serve as PPVs).”

Najib Razak.

Responding to the video, Dang Wangi district police chief Noor Dellhan Yahaya said police had taken “immediate action” by ordering a team to the PPV to “control the situation”.

In a statement, Noor Dellhan said the people at the PPV were advised to maintain physical distancing and wear face masks as per National Security Council (MKN) SOPs.

“The team successfully controlled the situation at the PPV until the end of the vaccination programme,” he said.

In the Instagram video which went viral, hundreds of foreigners and locals outside the Grand Seasons Hotel welfare home vaccination centre were seen standing very close to each other with hardly any space between them, in a queue that extended to the main road.

The Instagram user who shot the video, Umirah Mohd Taib said she was with her husband on her way to Kampung Baru when they saw the crowd outside the PPV located on Jalan Pahang.

“We were shocked at the sight of large, sardine-packed crowds by the side of the road outside the PPV,” she said.

The video also shows Umirah and her husband trying to remind people who were lining up to observe physical distancing.

Although they related their concerns to the policemen outside the PPV, they said that a check 40 minutes later still found huge crowds standing close to each other, and no one managing them.

In a second video, they showed the place still packed, with policemen standing around and health ministry officials trying frantically to bring order. Umirah’s husband was reduced to tears by the lack of discipline at the PPV.- FMT