Adham also said those who had recently graduated from medical school will be sent for training and issued their licence to practise, before being mobilised at vaccination centres.
“We also call on medical practitioners who have retired to help the country in implementing the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK),” he said during a joint press conference with vaccine minister Khairy Jamaluddin today.
Meanwhile, when queried on the home ministry’s crackdown on undocumented migrants, Khairy said he was still discussing the matter with the home ministry.
“As far as I’m concerned, we need to vaccinate everyone in Malaysia. But until these discussions are concluded, I don’t want to be in a crossfire with my colleague (home minister Hamzah Zainudin),” he said.
Despite Malaysia administering more than 150,000 doses yesterday, Khairy maintained that this work must remain consistent to expedite the implementation of PICK.
Three key issues were: the delivery of vaccines, vaccination capacity and available manpower. This was why the government was working to expedite delivery of vaccines, set up more mega vaccination centres (PPVs) and mobilise housemen to these places, he said.
He also said some areas have already begun Phase 3 of PICK, which involves all Malaysians aged 18 and above, as they have finished vaccinating all individuals registered under Phase 2.
Responding to queries on younger people queue-jumping ahead of the elderly under Phase 2 in Langkawi, he said PPVs had a waiting list based on the MySejahtera app that they can call should there be no-shows for the jabs.
“As for the Langkawi incident, I will have to investigate what happened.”
Meanwhile, Adham said Malaysia’s daily number of Covid-19 cases remained above the expected threshold of 4,000 and below a day, despite the decline in infections of late.
“The total lockdown is bearing fruit but we continue to ask the community and everyone else to adhere to public health measures like observing physical distancing, wearing of masks and the use of hand sanitisers.”
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