Individuals who jump the queue to receive Covid-19 vaccine jabs can be fined up to RM50,000 or be jailed for six months, or both, Health Minister Dr Adham Baba said.
He said such action could be taken under Section 31, which is a new provision under the Emergency (Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases) (Amendment) Ordinance 2021, which will come into effect on March 11.
Adham said Section 31 provides for the imposition of penalties under the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988 (Act 342) for any offence not specified in it.
"Regulations made under this new subsection may prescribe any law that contravenes the regulations to be an offence and shall be liable to a fine not exceeding RM50,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or both,” he said.
He said this at a joint press conference with Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Parliament and Law) Takiyuddin Hassan at the Health Ministry today.
Adham said that, for now, the ministry has not received any report regarding queue jumping for the Covid-19 vaccination.
"So far there has been no report regarding this matter, it's just news on social media,” he added.
On Monday, the Coordinating Minister for National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme, Khairy Jamaluddin, said the government has established "guidelines to determine a list of frontliners" to avoid queue jumping under the Covid-19 vaccination programme.
Khairy, who is also the Science, Technology and Innovation Minister, said the decision was made at the Covid-19 Vaccine Supply Access Guarantee Special Committee meeting in which the guidelines provided details on frontliners.
Khairy said the guidelines had been signed by him and Adham and uploaded here. It can also be found on the websites of both ministries.
- Bernama
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