In an interview with health news portal CodeBlue, Khairy said this “ring vaccination” strategy will run concurrently with the national vaccination programme for any area experiencing an outbreak, including prisons, workplaces and specific localities.
“We have outbreak tactical vaccinations. If there’s a particular geographical location or particular cluster that has shown an exponential spike in cases, then we will divert vaccinations to those areas.
“For instance, if there’s a prison, detention centre or a company that suddenly shows a big increase (in Covid-19 cases), our vaccination or immunisation plan allows for tactical deployment to such outbreak areas.”
He also said this strategy will be used because migrant workers and detainees in prisons and detention centres have been categorised as vulnerable groups, as they lived in confined spaces.
Khairy added that the government had yet to decide on who would bear the cost of vaccinating foreigners.
“My personal view is that we should give it and we have to give it free to everyone because it’s a basic right for everyone. Also, I think the principle is that the more we vaccinate, the better.
“The tagline is ‘lindung diri, lindung semua’. (protecting self, protecting all). I’ve been advocating free vaccinations for everyone who is resident in Malaysia,” he said.
CodeBlue said the ring vaccination strategy had been employed during the Ebola outbreaks in Africa, in which people who are close contacts of patients or other close contacts are vaccinated.
Meanwhile, Malaysia has also signed a deal with the Russian Direct Investment Fund for the supply of the Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine. The federation’s sovereign wealth fund signed the deal with the health ministry today.
This is the third vaccine deal signed by Malaysia. On Nov 24, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin announced that the government had signed an agreement with Pfizer to procure 12.8 million doses of its Covid-19 vaccines, produced in collaboration with Germany’s BioNTech.
And on Jan 11, Putrajaya agreed to procure an additional 12.2 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
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