PUTRAJAYA should speed up the national Covid-19 immunisation programme in order to reach 80% herd immunity by the end of the year instead of repeatedly implementing lockdowns, said Bukit Mertajam lawmaker Steven Sim.

“As of May 12, only 41.6% or 10.1 million people have signed up for the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme. Only 732,305 have been fully vaccinated and this includes 500,000 from phase one.

“Will the government be able to achieve its goal? Clearly it has strayed from its original target,” Sim said.

Phase two of the vaccination programme is supposed to inoculate 9.4 million people of 30.9% of the population by August.

The government has blamed vaccine supply as the reason why the immunisation programme was slow, but it has assured that Malaysia will receive its supply in June.

Khairy Jamaluddin, the coordinating minister for the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme said that Malaysia will receive 875,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca between May 19 and June 1.

“The question is what is the assurance that we will receive the vaccines in June and even if we get the supply, can the existing process help increase daily vaccination rate to reach 9.4 million people by August?” Sim asked.

He said the government’s target of 160,000 daily vaccination for phase two was not convincing as it was three times the current capacity of 40 to 50 thousand people per day, even though we are already in the second month of phase two.

“Even with the increase in the supply of vaccines, additional vaccination centres and vaccinators, it is worrying that the daily vaccination rate will not reach 160,000 people a day and its target of 9.4 million people by the end of August, let alone 80% by the end of the year.”

Sim urged the government to take any measure, including spending more money to increase vaccine supplies to boost daily vaccination rates in order to immunise 80% of the population by the end of the year as planned.

“We don’t have another choice, Putrajaya should stop playing with the lives of the people with a lockdown strategy that is a mockery.

“We should put all our efforts into speeding up the vaccination process,” he said.

On May 10, the Putrajaya imposed a national lockdown as cases trended above 3,000 and 4,000 for a few weeks, less than a month after Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin promised there would be no more nationwide restrictions.

Under this movement restriction from May 12 to June 7, all educational institutions will be closed, and all social visits, sports and recreational activities are banned (except those in open areas like jogging, cycling and exercising with physical distancing observed).

Also prohibited are inter-district and interstate travel, with certain exceptions. Economic sectors are, however, allowed to operate. – May 14, 2021.