Be flexible about factory vaccination centres, Putrajaya told

 

The MEF has called for flexibility about vaccinations at factories, while FMM says mobile units should be set up. (Bernama pic)

KOTA KINABALU: The government should be more flexible in allowing factories to set up vaccination centres, says Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) president Syed Hussain Syed Husman.

He said the current conditions called for the factory to have a minimum of 1,000 recipients before a vaccination centre could be set up.

Syed Hussain told FMT that all factories that wanted to vaccinate their workers should be allowed to do so without a minimum number of vaccine recipients.

“From previous experience, many difficulties were faced in establishing PPVs in factories because of conditions which were very prescriptive and not easily fulfilled. We hope that these conditions would be relaxed, especially the threshold of a minimum of 1,000 vaccine recipients. It’s fair to allow factories that want to vaccinate their workers to do so despite the number of employees,” he said.

Syed Hussain Syed Husman.

Syed Hussain said the ministries and agencies involved should also be more practical and flexible to help employers, especially since the prime minister himself wanted factories to turn into PPVs.

He said MEF hopes that a national Covid-19 vaccination hotline can be created for employers to get in touch with the authorities.

Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob has urged factory owners to set up their own vaccination centres, so that there would not be congestion at other centres. Factories could also purchase their own supplies of vaccine, he said.

The Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) said what Ismail called for was already being implemented by the international trade and industry ministry but was not suitable for small- and medium-sized enterprises.

Soh Thian Lai.

FMM president Soh Thian Lai said it would be better if a specific vaccination programme catered to factory workers was set up.

“To ensure factory workers are vaccinated quicker and at lower costs, FMM encourages implementing mobile vaccination programmes using trucks or buses,” he said. “This would not only overcome the transport issue faced by workers but will also help factories whose workers have yet to be immunised. These mobile vaccination units can be established in industrial areas that have many SMEs, with a smaller number of workers.” - FMT