Putrajaya urged to expedite vaccination instead of arbitrary MCOs
Putrajaya should expedite its Covid-19 vaccination efforts amid rising infections, said Bukit Mertajam MP Steven Sim Chee Keong.
He said this was opposed to the movement control order (MCO) which he claimed is being applied arbitrarily.
He said the MCO was not applied equally across all sectors.
This was amid complaints by malls...
Putrajaya should expedite its Covid-19 vaccination efforts amid rising infections, said Bukit Mertajam MP Steven Sim Chee Keong.
He said this was opposed to the movement control order (MCO) which he claimed is being applied arbitrarily.
He said the MCO was not applied equally across all sectors.
This was amid complaints by malls about being ordered to close despite only contributing to less than five percent of Covid-19 clusters as opposed to factories that made up 48 percent.
The government defended its decision, stating that it also ordered factories to close but did not publicise it.
Sim added that the standard operating procedure was also not equally applied for ordinary citizens compared to VIPs.
"People are being asked to sacrifice but the government's MCO strategy has not yielded the desired results.
"The arbitrary MCO has failed, don't allow the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme to fail as well," he said.
The DAP lawmaker noted that as of May 12, only 41.6 percent of the population had registered for Covid-19 vaccination.
This was despite the government's target to vaccinate around 30 percent of the population by August.
As of May 12, around 3.5 percent of the population had received the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.
Science, Technology, and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin had said that vaccination should pick up in June as more supply arrives.
Considering the statistics, Sim questioned if Malaysia can meet the target even if the additional supply arrived as scheduled.
Khairy had mulled mandatory Covid-19 vaccination once supply exceeds demand.
Meanwhile, Pasir Gudang MP Hassan Abdul Karim urged the government to provide assistance to vulnerable groups following the implementation of MCO 3.0 which took effect on May 12.
He said the government should reimplement the loan moratorium until the end of the year, a similar measure introduced during MCO 1.0 last year.
He noted that while most of the economy can still operate under the current MCO, some sectors were badly hit.
"It is not to forgive the loan but merely to postponement repayment," he said.
He said banks are capable of footing such a moratorium, considering their huge profits.
Are you sure you want to delete this comment?
This action cannot be undone.