Key policy safeguards for a successful rollout of private vaccination scheme

While the government has finally announced that it will allow private vaccination scheme to run in parallel with the national vaccination programme, the debate on the issue is expected to continue. For example, the Association of Private Hospitals Malaysia (APHM) maintains that private vaccination will expedite herd vaccination, but human rights organisation Suaram believes that it will encourage “queue-cutting”, leading to unequal access to the vaccines. Others argued that even if the scheme is allowed, securing additional vaccines is difficult due to the shortage in the global supply. As such, they contended that priority must be given to the national vaccination programme.

If properly implemented, the private vaccination scheme will fasten the national herd immunity, reduce the costs on the government, and expedite our economic recovery efforts. It could support our efforts to retain existing investments and attract new FDI, as large multinational companies are looking for options to vaccinate their employees and resume safe business operations, particularly in the manufacturing sector. This could increase Malaysia’s competitiveness especially as private vaccination programmes are being rolled out in Indonesia and the Philippines, and the fact that other major manufacturing markets such as Vietnam and Thailand have much lower Covid-19 infection numbers.