Call for vaccination in more sectors

SEPANG: The industrial vaccination programme will be expanded to cover more sectors, including plantation and retail, says Khairy Jamaluddin.

To date the coordinating minister of the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme said 27 industry PPV (vaccination centres) have been set up nationwide.

“For now, the ministries involved in the Covid-19 vaccination programme for the economic sector are the International Trade and Industry Ministry, Works Ministry, and Transport Ministry.

“The CITF (Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force) has also received requests from the Plantation Industries and Commodities Ministry, as well as the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry.

“The former is looking to vaccinate those in the plantation industry while the latter wants it for the retail sector.

“We (the CITF) will make a decision soon on expanding the sectors and the amount of vaccine to be distributed,” he told a press conference during his visit to the vaccination centre for aviation workers at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) here yesterday.

Khairy said the vaccination programme for the aviation sector involves 22,243 frontline workers, which constitutes 43% of the workforce at KLIA.

The KLIA PPV started operating on Monday and has the capacity to vaccinate 1,000 people a day.

“We are also looking to vaccinate workers at other airports in the country to ensure that more in the aviation sector receive protection with Covid-19 vaccines,” said Khairy.

On the issue of international travel vaccine policies, he reiterated Malaysia’s stance that all vaccines approved by the World Health Organisation (WHO) should be recognised.

“Saudi Arabia, Singapore, China, Britain and the United States are among countries that are popular destinations for Malaysian travellers, be it for holiday or business, so there needs to be a clear policy that is agreed by all.

“Malaysia is a country that immunises its people with various vaccines, but some countries recognise only certain vaccines. This creates confusion if there is no clear policy.

“So, Malaysia’s stance is that as long as a vaccine is approved by the WHO, it should be recognised. Plus, you can’t expect people to be vaccinated many times,” he added.

The European Union’s digital travel certificate policy only recognises travellers who are fully inoculated with vaccines approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA).