PM must get involved in decision-making on vaccination drives - Santiago

 

Klang MP Charles Santiago has called on Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob to “step in” in the decision-making process over the country’s vaccination drives.

This is in view of the fact that the population had yet to reach 90 percent herd immunity.

Santiago claimed that this was contrary to the reason given by the Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF) that 29 vaccination centres (PPVs) across Selangor had to be shut down because a large proportion of the population had been fully vaccinated.

He calculated that in Klang alone, some 35 percent, or 453,318, of his 1.3 million constituents remain unvaccinated against the Covid-19 virus.

Citing Klang as an example, Santiago told Malaysiakini today that by reversing the decentralisation process of the vaccine drive, a PPV such as Wyndham Hotel in Klang - which facilitates walk-in appointments - would run the risk of overcrowding at its facilities due to the high volume of vaccinations.

“Are they (authorities) stupid? I mean, what are they thinking when they make such a decision (to shut down PPVs)? Clearly, the decision is not carefully thought through.

“I sent a letter (to the Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry) yesterday, and prior to that, the community as a whole came together and issued a statement to the ministry (telling them) not to do it (closed the PPVs) but they still went ahead and did it.

“This defies logic. That’s all I can say. This is where the prime minister has to get involved,” he said.

 Yesterday, Santiago wrote the letter in which he appealed to the Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry (Mosti) to review its decision to shut down PPVs in Klang

In his letter, he listed six factors that should have been considered by the ministry in its decision to shut down the PPVs.

The six factors are:

1. The herd immunity targets in MySejahtera’s data do not match Klang’s total population.
2. PPVs represent the best platform to organise vaccine registration drives, as compared to the registration process on MySejahtera.
3. The daily active cases and infectivity rates in Klang showed that many remain unvaccinated.
4. The government has spent a big sum of money on opening these PPVs.
5. The opening of mega PPVs could risk creating new clusters.
6. Confusion for first dose recipients due to the digital gap.

On Aug 19, CITF had instructed the Selangor government and other stakeholders to close a slew of PPVs this month and next.

It explained the move was to “optimise resources in line with how the vaccination rate in Selangor has reached more than 90 percent and is expected to be completed in the near future”.

Santiago, however, also pointed out that the decision to halt vaccinations by general practitioners went against the advice of health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

Three days ago, Noor Hisham revealed on Twitter that the CITF went against his proposal in its plan to no longer include GPs in the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (NIP). - Mkini