Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin has disappointed Malaysians with the announcement that the COVID-19 vaccines will not be available to the vast majority of Malaysians until the third quarter of this year. He revealed that Malaysia’s vaccination plan will span over 18 months from the delivery of the vaccine in late February 2021, two months later than Indonesia and Singapore.
Health Minister Dr Adham Baba only signed the contract to obtain an additional 12.2 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on 11 January, that with a total of 25 million Pfizer doses, will cover a mere 39 percent of the country’s population in 2021. Can the government explain whether the remaining 61% of the population will have to wait until 2022, or there will be vaccinated with vaccines from other countries whose efficacy has been questioned?
Based on this 18-months vaccination plan, the threat of COVID-19 to Malaysia will remain until the end of 2022. The two months delay in securing delivery of the vaccines compared to Indonesia and Singapore, and the long 18 months vaccination plan is unacceptable. Many lives will be unnecessarily lost and the people will suffer longer from the harsh economic impact.
In view of the inordinate delay in securing early delivery of the vaccines, Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin should quickly intervene to restore full screening tests of all close contacts of COVID-19 patients, even though the close contacts are asymptomatic.
Full implementation of the 3Ts of testing, tracing and treatment, including full screening tests, is most effective in containing the spread of COVID-19. Health Ministry Director-General Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah has confirmed that screening tests will no longer be conducted on every individual identified as close contacts to Covid-19 positive patients, and instead only test those who show symptoms.
This “relaxation” of the previous ruling requiring full screening tests involving all asymptomatic close contacts, is the result of our healthcare system unable to cope with the surge in the number of Covid-19 patients. Clearly Cabinet Ministers have been sleeping on their job by failing to provide full support and resources, in terms of equipment and manpower, for our front-liners in their life and death battle against COVID-19.
There is no excuse for not using the RM17 billion Covid-19 Fund approved by the 2021 Budget for the Health Ministry to fully implement 3Ts. Without 3Ts, more Malaysians will get infected with COVID-19 and more lives unnecessarily lost. Will the Prime Minister and his Cabinet Ministers please wake up?