THE government has never forced parents to register their children to be vaccinated through the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme for Children, Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said today. 

He said the notion of forced inoculation via the vaccination programme was untrue as parents have always been given a choice on the matter. 

“We discussed this in the cabinet. There is no compulsion on the people, whether the third, fourth, fifth (dose)… especially on children. 

“In the early days when the first vaccine dose was given, many were also reluctant or afraid to be vaccinated, and later there was a rush for the shots with the second dose no longer an issue,” he told reporters after attending the Keluarga Malaysia Entrepreneur and Family Cooperative carnival in Taman Nusantara today.

Ismail was responding to reports that the vaccination rate under the children’s vaccination programme was still at under 10%.  

As of yesterday, a total of 341,960 or 9.6% of children aged between five and 11 received their first Covid-19 vaccine dose.

Ismail said the Covid-19 booster shot take-up rate was also increasing despite negative talk surrounding the vaccine. 

“I understand that currently, many are taking the booster shot. The only thing is that maybe for children, this is something new, so for the people (apprehension) is normal.

“When it comes to new things, people usually adopt a wait and see attitude, especially when there are rumours flying about, so we can’t blame them,” he said. – Bernama, February 18, 2022.