Provide clear timeline, engage GPs for Covid-19 booster shots rollout, PH tells govt
Pakatan Harapan’s health committee urges the government to learn from past mistakes and provide a clear strategy on the rollout.
PETALING JAYA: The rollout of Covid-19 booster shots to eligible recipients must be properly planned and coordinated with all relevant stakeholders, the Pakatan Harapan (PH) health committee said.
This comes in the wake of a statement from the Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) that there had been no proper engagement from the state health departments on the third dose or booster shots programme.
“This should not be the case as lessons should have been learned from past mistakes, including involving the private GPs (general practitioners) only at the very last minute,” the PH health committee said in a statement today.
The committee called on the health ministry to clearly define its rollout strategy.
This includes providing a clear timeline for the rollout across the country, efforts to educate those eligible on the importance of the additional dose and approving heterologous vaccination plans (mix-and-match vaccinations) as soon as possible.
“We take the stand that the health ministry and the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency should approve as soon as possible heterologous vaccination with the booster,” the committee said, citing studies conducted in countries such as Germany, Spain, Taiwan, Sweden, and the UK which showed positive results of the mix-and-match vaccination approach.
The health ministry announced that a third dose of the Covid-19 vaccine would be offered to some 8.75 million eligible recipients.
According to health minister Khairy Jamaluddin, high-risk groups such as the elderly, those who were immunocompromised, people with comorbidities, healthcare workers and workers at care homes will receive a third dose.
The recipients involve 600,000 frontline workers, 150,000 immunocompromised patients, three million elderly and workers at long-term care facilities as well as five million individuals with comorbidities.
Khairy said the Drug Control Authority had given conditional approval for the use of Pfizer-BioNTech’s Comirnaty vaccine as the third dose at a meeting on Oct 8.
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