PETALING JAYA: The Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) has advised Putrajaya against reopening mega vaccination centres (PPVs), saying funds meant for this purpose should be used to strengthen the public healthcare system instead.
MMA president Dr Koh Kar Chai said there were 2,459 private centres already administering boosters nationwide, with an average of 130,000 jabs being given daily by them.
While the programme was going on smoothly, he noted that there was a high “dropout” rate in appointments for these booster jabs.
In a statement today, Koh said this hesitancy among recipients was what needed to be addressed first before reopening big facilities in order to improve the booster uptake.
“From the feedback we are receiving, many are unwilling to receive the Pfizer shot after being fully vaccinated with Sinovac. When there is no choice given, many will choose not to accept the booster shot.
“There is no point in opening up large facilities to administer boosters when the dropout rate is high.
“It will be a waste of funds and resources which can be put to better use in areas more urgently needing help in our healthcare system,” he said.
Earlier this week, Khairy said the government would be reopening mega PPVs to administer booster shots to ramp up efforts against Omicron.
But Koh said public healthcare workers needed to be in their health facilities instead of PPVs since there was a shortage of manpower in almost all government hospitals and clinics nationwide.
He added that appointments were picking up at public hospitals after many previously postponed it due to the past lockdowns or fear of contracting Covid-19.
“There were also many cases in mega PPV clusters. Now, with the highly transmissible Omicron variant, we may see more super-spreader events.
“The health ministry should instead encourage private medical practitioners to open more small-scale outreach centres within the community instead of bigger PPVs.” - FMT
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