Azrul Mohd Khalib, CEO of the Galen Centre for Health and Social Policy, said this may be caused by the over-dependence on mega PPVs, leading to congestion.
He said this had unnecessarily put people at risk of Covid-19 infection due to a lack of physical distancing and SOP enforcement.
“It would have been better to decentralise and create multiple and smaller PPVs which can cater to this community. However, manpower to do this would be a problem.”
Azrul said poor planning also meant lack of resources when the police or authorities were unable to deploy enough people to control the large crowd.
“With this community, having online event management systems may also be inappropriate and difficult due to connectivity, literacy and language problems,” he said.
He suggested that there should be an efficient way to inform people of the slots available for vaccinations that day, rather than having people queue up for hours to try their luck at getting a vaccine.
Meanwhile, migrant rights activist from the North South Initiative, Adrian Pereira criticised the lack of proper consultation with the relevant NGOs on migrant workers’ issues and cultures prior to the vaccination programme.
He said the need for the MySejahtera or Selangkah apps was also a hindrance as most were not literate in English or Malay and many were also not IT-savvy.
“There were attempts to translate the consent forms for the vaccination process but it was done too late,” he said.
Pereira said many were clueless as to which centres were offering free walk-in vaccinations. They claimed that certain parties were taking advantage of this confusion and asking them to pay.
“They sometimes come from far away and spend money getting there. Then they wait for hours with no guarantee that there will be enough vaccines for all of them,” he said.
As a result, he said, the walk-in programme had become “chaotic and disastrous”, adding that this had led to large crowds at the centres.
He suggested setting up a separate app in their various languages to simplify the process.
“There is a list of problems from A to Z but nobody is talking to us (NGOs).
“It only shows that we are not serious and we are not taking migrants seriously. When migrants fall sick, Malaysians will also fall sick. That is the tragedy in this situation,” he said.
Previously, vaccine minister Khairy Jamaluddin had said adults not recorded as residents of Selangor and Kuala Lumpur, such as those who do not have documents, will be allowed to walk-in for their jabs after Aug 1.
“After our surge capacity operations are finished, all PPVs (in Selangor and KL) will be open for walk-ins so that we can ‘mop up’ those who have not received their first dose,” he said.
However, since the commencement of the programme, several viral videos showing large crowds at selected PPVs have surfaced, causing public concern amid the surge in Covid-19 cases in the Klang Valley.
Yesterday, a long line of people were reported at the vaccination centre at Rumah Prihatin@Grand Seasons welfare centre at Jalan Pahang in Kuala Lumpur. The centre clarified, however, that it did not vaccinate foreigners and that confusion had caused “a rush of people”.
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