Work on recognition of vaccination cert, MP tells govt

 

Dr Lee Boon Chye says there must be a government-to-government agreements to recognise each other’s vaccination certificates when international borders reopen.

PETALING JAYA: The government should give priority to getting other countries to recognise the vaccination certificate issued by the health ministry, an MP has suggested.

Gopeng MP Dr Lee Boon Chye said with the government preparing to allow Malaysians to travel abroad again, there should be a government-to-government agreement on recognising each other’s vaccination certificates.

Lee, a former deputy health minister, said since more than one million Malaysians have yet to register for vaccination, only fully vaccinated adults should be allowed to travel abroad once Malaysia’s borders are opened.

Such a restriction would also encourage those who did not want to get vaccinated to get their jabs as soon as possible, he said.

Dr Lee Boon Chye.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said that Malaysians might be able to travel abroad from December without having to apply for the MyTravelPass document.

Lee also said the government should keep track of countries that had new coronavirus variants and should quarantine inbound travellers.

However, Malaysian Medical Association president Dr Koh Kar Chai said quarantine might not be necessary if the international traveller had been fully vaccinated and had a negative PCR test.

He said Malaysia should also allow entry to travellers who have been vaccinated with any of the vaccines recognised and recommended by the World Health Organization.

Koh said the government should devise a method to enable contact tracing of international travellers.- FMT