THE Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) has called on other states to follow Selangor’s move in procuring vaccines directly from the manufacturer to boost the number of vaccinations nationally.

MMA president Dr Subramaniam Muniandy said states reporting high numbers of Covid-19 cases should ramp up their vaccination drive, rather than wait for the cases to surge.

“Other state governments should also consider similar vaccination and screening programmes.

“States seeing an increase in transmissions should be screening the community and speeding up their vaccinations.

“We should not be waiting for a surge in cases. In managing the pandemic, we need to act fast to protect lives and livelihood,” he said in a statement today.

On Wednesday, Selangor Menteri Besar Amirudin Shari said that the state is expected to receive its own batches of the Covid-19 vaccine from the end of June. 

Although Amirudin did not reveal the brand or the manufacturer, he confirmed that it had been approved by the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency. 

The MMA welcomed the move by Selangor and said it was the right move.

“MMA welcomes the Selangor government’s move to obtain more than 500,000 vaccine doses directly from a vaccine manufacturer for older persons, and the industrial, manufacturing and services sector workforces, as well as adolescents in the state.

“Getting more than 1,000 private GPs on board for the Selangor Covid-19 vaccination programme is indeed the right move because speed, convenience and accessibility are important in increasing vaccination uptake,” Subramaniam said.

He said the MMA was targeting around 2,000 GPs in Selangor and areas bordering Kuala Lumpur to participate in the vaccination drive.

This will be a much needed boost to break the chain of infections, speed up economic recovery in the state and protect against any future disruptions in all sectors, he said.

On Tuesday, Selangor ruler Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah said it was “unfair” to allot only 600,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccine to the country’s most populous state.

Sultan Sharafuddin expressed his “shock” to learn from the Covid-19 immunisation task force that as of June, Selangor had received only 615,210 doses instead of the 2.9 million pledged previously. – June 11, 2021.