MALAYSIA should vaccinate first and register later as priority needs to be given to bringing the Covid-19 situation in the country under control, said Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad.

The Selangor Taskforce for Covid-19 chairman said the most important thing right now was to have shots in hand to reduce the risk of infection and deaths.

“The slower we go, the more we will be dealing with deaths occurring in the country,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

His suggestion echoes that of former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who also recommended that people need not go through prior registration, and should instead be given the vaccine shots first.

The Langkawi lawmaker said the use of MySejahtera for the vaccine registration process was merely bureaucratic and that anyone could be vaccinated by bringing their identity card for the purpose of recording their data in the system.

Malaysia today recorded 5,841 new Covid-19 infections and 84 deaths. Malaysia’s overall caseload now stands at 716,847, with Selangor leading the chart with 235,120 cases.

The overall death toll stands at 4,721.

Dzulkefly also suggested that the government provide enough vaccines to states with high registration rates.

“We must look at the vaccine supply to states with high demand (high registrations) because there are people already waiting to be vaccinated.

“Sarawak has registered many more vaccinations lately causing the recent rise in national numbers. The other states must also be given adequate vaccines to do the same,” he said.

Selangor, the country’s most populous state, has only had 11.2% of its population or 731,294 people covered by one dose. Just 3.6% or 237,622 people have been fully vaccinated.

Despite its large population, the state had not received a proportionate vaccine supply, prompting Selangor ruler Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah to question the government’s decision.

The Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation had initially said that the state was the recipient of 2.9 million doses of the vaccine when, in fact, as of June 8 it only received 615,210 doses.

It was later clarified that the 2.9 million doses were stored in government facilities and in the distributor’s warehouse located in Selangor for distribution nationwide.

Dzulkefly said the slower Malaysia administers its vaccine, the longer it puts people at risk of infection and the country’s healthcare resources will continue to be strained.

“The longer we delay, the more we put people at risk and the longer it will take for us to control the Covid-19 situation in Malaysia – including the collapsing healthcare system, the ailing ICU capacity and the worryingly high numbers of deaths in the country.”

He added that vaccination efforts need to be continuously ramped up and it must also include economic front liners and migrant workers to ensure that when the country reopens, it will be safer.

Early this month, Khairy Jamaluddin, the coordinating minister for the national immunisation programme, said economic front liners will be vaccinated in phase four of the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme to curb the spread of the coronavirus through workplace clusters.

The country has been actively trying to administer 200,000 doses daily, with the aim to reach 300,000 per day by August. The current cumulative number of shots given is 6.56 million, of which 4.75 million are first doses, while 1.8 million people have received their second shots.

In Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s National Recovery Plan, which was announced last week, the country will open in phases subject to a decrease in the number of daily infections, an increase in the percentage of the population that has been vaccinated and when the healthcare system is no longer at a critical stage. – June 24, 2021.