KUCHING, March 21 — The Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB) Southern Zone Taskforce has urged the government to let private hospitals participate in the Covid-19 vaccination exercise.
Its head See Chee How said this would help to realise the government’s target of 70 to 80 per cent of the population vaccinated within a shorter period of time.
“We are urging the government, let’s get the private hospitals to participate in the vaccination. This is one way it would help you to speed up the vaccination process,” he said during the PSB Southern Zone Taskforce Live Facebook session yesterday.
See, who is also Batu Lintang assemblyman and PSB presidential council member, also believed the people should be given a choice on which type of vaccines they want to be vaccinated with.
“Pfizer-BioNTech or Sinovac, both are approved already by the WHO (World Health Organisation). They are safe,” he said.
He also urged more Sarawakians to register for the Covid-19 vaccination programme, since latest statistics showed 1.223 million or more than 40 per cent of Sarawak’s population have registered so far.
“Everybody must get themselves registered either through MySejahtera application or register at hospitals and district offices. This is very important, to protect everybody,” he added.
On a related matter, See reiterated his previous stand that Sarawak state government should negotiate and consult with the federal government for the state to assert its autonomy in the management and enforcement of Covid-19 standard operating procedure (SOP) enactment with regards public health matters.
Following the recent introduction of the RM10,000 compound for Covid-19 SOP offences, he said Sarawak should be able to come up with its own set of penalties because the state has the legislative authority on matters to protect public health.
He pointed out that public health is a subject matter in which the state has concurrent power and authority, as enshrined in the Federal Constitution.
“Sarawak should be able to tell the federal government that we are imposing the guidelines in Sarawak, (that) we can do it ourselves (and determine) what kind of compounds that we can impose in Sarawak,” he said.
The increase of the penalty from RM1,000 to RM10,000 is part of the Emergency (Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases) (Amendment) Ordinance 2021 which came into force effective March 11.
Nonetheless, See said PSB Kuching has assembled a legal team of volunteer lawyers to assist those who have been issued such RM10,000 compound for allegedly violating the Covid19 measures.
He explained the team is looking into challenging compound notices issued prior to the de facto law minister Datuk Seri Takiyuddin Hassan’s announcement on March 17 that failure to wear face mask or practise physical distancing will now be liable to a fine of RM1,500 instead of the maximum RM10,000.
“People are really in the dark, and everybody is worried about this RM10,000 fine
“Our legal team are working on it, to challenge all compound notices issued earlier which are deemed unreasonable,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Live Facebook session also touched on several matters concerning the public such as the newly released SOPs for the Qing Ming and issues concerning Chinese schools.
Also participating in the session were PSB publicity secretary Liu Thian Leong, and Southern Zone Taskforce members Tan Kay Hok and Datuk John Lau Pang Heng. — Borneo Post Online
