No evidence of queue-jumping in Covid-19 vaccination, says Adham
Health Minister Dr Adham Baba denies that there was queue-cutting in the Covid-19 vaccination programme after an investigation carried out found no evidence of such an incident.
The minister was quoted by a news portal stating what happened was due to confusion as some frontliners who were supposed to get their jabs were not present on time, and they had to be replaced...
Health Minister Dr Adham Baba denies that there was queue-cutting in the Covid-19 vaccination programme after an investigation carried out found no evidence of such an incident.
The minister was quoted by a news portal stating what happened was due to confusion as some frontliners who were supposed to get their jabs were not present on time, and they had to be replaced.
However, Adham (photo, above) stressed that the replacements were also frontliners and not people who were there due to their connections, as has been alleged.
"So, I deny there was queue-cutting. What happened was, after investigations, I found that those who were supposed to be vaccinated did not turn up or did not come on time as they should.
"The issue is that when we open a vial, six people need to be vaccinated at one go. During registration, some of them were there, and when it was time to be administered, they were not," he said.
"So we were forced to find others at that time to avoid wasting the vaccine. That did happen, but we still gave the jabs to frontliners. Not those who were accused of getting it because of their connections.
"It was given to frontliners who were present at that time," he told the MalayMail.
It is understood that the news portal had contacted Adham for comments over recent controversies surrounding the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme.
The programme, which aims to immunise at least 80 percent of Malaysia's population against the coronavirus, is planned to be carried out in three phases, with frontliners being the first to receive their jabs.
However, allegations had surfaced as soon as it started at the end of last month that some frontliners were pushed back in the list of recipients to give way to some others.
Among those who made such claims were healthcare frontliners, who took it to social media urging authorities to do something about the matter.
One of them was consultant physician and nephrologist Dr Rafidah Abdullah who highlighted complaints that officials from the Kelantan state secretariat were trying to jump the queue.
This had then prompted Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin to call anyone who has information of queue-jumping to come forward.
Malaysiakini previously also highlighted complaints from staff at Serdang Hospital, who spoke on condition of anonymity as they could face disciplinary action, about a proposal to prioritise hospital administrators and influencers, but the Health Ministry dismissed this as "fake news".
Instead, Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah had said the influencers were MOH's clinical head departments and not social media influencers.
Since then, this news portal had received two more similar complaints, one related to the Kelantan state secretariat as highlighted by Rafidah and another in Penang involving senior district officials. A Kelantan state exco member had since denied the allegation.
Yesterday, the Health Ministry issued a statement warning its staff that they are not allowed to make public statements on government policy, programmes and decisions without consent.
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