By Peter Sibon
KUCHING, Feb 18: While welcoming the news that the government will provide free vaccination to all Malaysians and foreigners alike, Suhakam Sarawak commissioner Datuk Dr Madeline Berma is concerned about the fate of undocumented people in Sarawak.
She said, even though there is no official number of these undocumented individuals, their presence in Sarawak will pose a danger to the community where they live, especially those who are living in a close-knit community such as in longhouses.
“This is an area of concern for us because even if their number is very small, but if they are not given vaccination just because they don’t have documents, their presence in their community would pose a real and present danger to the entire community where they live,” Madeline told DayakDaily when contacted today.
As such, she opined that to ensure that these undocumented individuals will also be vaccinated, the local community leaders as well as the elected representatives have to play a more proactive role to verify their status.
“Just imagine if we have one undocumented individual in a longhouse. After everyone is vaccinated, he or she is left out. This particular undocumented person could be a carrier and infect the entire longhouse,” she said.
Madeline thus hoped that with the availability of the vaccines, everyone should be vaccinated, regardless of their nationalities.
“We are dealing with a virus which does not have regards to any nationality. So the vaccine provides faster herd immunity among the people and hopefully it would help to curb the deadly coronavirus which has affected thousands of Sarawakians and killed more than 60 individuals,” she said.
Madeline was commenting on Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s announcement on the vaccination plan guidebook that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines would arrive on Sunday (Feb 21), ahead of the scheduled Feb 26 roll-out of the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme.
It was reported that around 500,000 frontiners, a majority of the healthcare workers, will be the first to be vaccinated.
“Among those who have close contact with the public are MPs and state assemblymen. Whether they are with the government or opposition, they will be vaccinated in the first phase,” Muhyiddin said after the launch of vaccination plan guidebook on Feb 16.
The first phase will end in April and vaccines will then be made available to 9.4 million people in high-risk groups, such as those with certain diseases, those above the age of 65 and other medical professionals.
The rest of adults living in Malaysia, including foreign workers, will be eligible for vaccination between May and next February.
Malaysia previously said that it had secured enough vaccines to cover nearly all of its 33 million population. The target is to vaccinate 80 per cent of all adults by the end of the year or by February next year at the latest.
The first batch of vaccines arriving on Sunday will contain 312,390 doses. Each individual needs two doses. Malaysia has secured 12.8 million doses from Pfizer-BioNTech. -DayakDaily
