Dr Sathia Prakash Nadarajan said the move by the health ministry to end booster shots through walk-ins was “unwise” as it would not speed up the vaccination rate for booster shots.

He said the ministry should review the walk-in procedures instead by prioritising certain age groups and frontliners, who were more at risk of being exposed to Covid-19 variants.

“There is no need to close down walk-in counters right away. They should have left them open with priority given to those who are 60 and above or patients with comorbidities and frontliners.

“Once all those aged 60 and above are vaccinated, the counters can be opened to those aged 50, and so on. This makes it easier to control the rate of booster jabs, unlike previously when the situation was chaotic and the risk of (infection spread) was high,” he told FMT.

Sathia, from the SPCare chain of clinics, was responding to the congestion issue at PPVs, which had recently been filled with senior citizens and the public who wanted to get their booster shots.

Videos circulating on social media had shown long queues at some PPVs in the Klang Valley, which led to ProtectHealth announcing that walk-ins for booster shots would no longer be allowed at off-site vaccination centres from Jan 3.

Sathia said the government should utilise private clinics that were available instead of focusing on mega PPVs.

“There are more than 8,000 private clinics and hospitals and if you top that up with government clinics, there are more than 10,000 health centres.

“Let them administer the booster shots instead of reopening the mega PPVs, which will incur a high operational cost,” he said.

He also said while the fee per vaccination had been raised to RM19 from RM14, it did not cover the cost of clinic staff.

“But at least we can speed up the vaccination rate rather than wasting money on things we don’t need,” he said.