GEORGE TOWN, July 27 — The Penang Consumers Association (CAP) has urged the government to allow ivermectin to be used under Emergency Use Authorisation alongside the ongoing vaccination programme to combat the Covid-19 pandemic.

Its president Mohideen Abdul Kader said CAP supported the call of the Malaysian Alliance for Effective Covid-19 Control to make Malaysia the 32nd country to use the drug in its treatment and prevention programmes for the pandemic.

"Ivermectin is low-risk, low-cost drug that is well established and readily available. It has been used for decades (even for other treatments).

"At this critical time of the pandemic, the government should seriously use ivermectin for Covid-19 treatment along with the vaccination programme that has successfully provided 36.13 per cent of the population with the first dose (of the vaccine) and 16.90 per cent with the second dose,” he said in a statement here today.

Mohideen said the use of ivermectin in dealing with the pandemic would give the people greater hope to restore normalcy in Malaysia. — Bernama