Make Covid-19 vaccination mandatory, Penang exco tells Putrajaya

GEORGE TOWN, Sept 7 — Penang state executive councillor Jagdeep Singh Deo today called on new Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin to consider making it mandatory for every Malaysian to register for Covid-19 vaccination.

The local government, housing and town and country planning committee chairman said the authorities have put in so much effort to stop the spread of the virus but it could be undone by a small group of people who refused to be vaccinated.

“It doesn’t make sense that we do all these programmes to fight Covid-19 and some people still refused to register for Covid-19 vaccination so the ministry must look into this,” he told a press conference in Dewan Sri Pinang here this morning.

Jagdeep said the government’s efforts in the war against Covid-19 will be for nothing as long as there were people refusing vaccination and still insisting on going out in public, which put others at risk.

“When this group goes out, with the new variant around, they can get it and affect the rest of us even if we are already vaccinated,” he said.

He added that all civil servants should register for vaccination, including teachers as schools are reopening soon.

“You are in the public service, if you are not vaccinated and you are exposed to Covid-19, you are no longer a public servant, you are a public spreader of Covid-19 because you deal with the public in your job,” he said.

Jagdeep said teachers should be vaccinated before schools reopen.

“I believe all parents agree that vaccination is a must for all teachers, how can parents be expected to send their children to school if their teachers are not vaccinated?”

Jagdeep said the state has agreed to extend its Covid-19 community vaccination mobilisation programme (Movak) for hawkers and traders in Penang for another four days from this Thursday to Sunday.

He said a total of 11,000 doses were given to hawkers and traders in Penang during the first phase of Movak between August 30 and September 2.

“We will be dispensing another 5,200 doses in the four days from Thursday only on two locations, one on the island and one on the mainland, due to shortage of people to man the centres,” he said.

He said there will be buses to bring hawkers and traders without transport to the two designated locations, one at the Dewan Dato’ Haji Ahmad Badawi in Butterworth and another at Dewan Sri Pinang on the island.

As of September 5, Jagdeep said a total 1.32 million people in Penang have registered for vaccination and 1.19 million or 67.2 per cent have received their first dose.

A total of 844,650 people or 47 per cent have received their second dose and Jagdeep said all of the registered adult population would have received at least their first dose by the end of this month.