By Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye
KOTA KINABALU: The Government and all Malaysians can give themselves a pat on the back for achieving a high level of success in our Covid-19 vaccination efforts.
By global standards, we started late but we have now overtaken many other countries in our road to achieving herd immunity.
According to the latest reports, nearly 80 percent of the adult population has been fully vaccinated, and 93.1 per cent have received at least one dose.
Altogether a total of nearly 41 million doses have been administered.
This is indeed a commendable effort, even given the fact that there has been no let up in the negative messages on vaccination being spread by anti-vaxxers.
But having reached a comfortable level of protection against the effects of Covid-19 virus, we cannot be complacent.
Our biggest challenge now is not to let our guard down. We must continue to strictly follow the basic SOPs—washing hands, wearing masks, and physical distancing.
With the relaxation to travel and recreational restrictions, we are seeing a deluge of people heading for picnic spots near waterfalls, rivers and beaches, but they have not been following all the SOPs. Whatever has happened to physical distancing?
The Government must keep reminding them of the grave risks that still exist..
It is also important for employers to enforce all SOPs in their premises and instill self-discipline in their workers to be ever-vigilant against lapses among themselves or their customers.’
Some risks also face some sections of the fully-vaccinated population, especially senior citizens with comorbidities, and for which the Government is now thinking of a third dose for them.
In this respect, it is important to plan well and take clear-cut decisions on who will be required to take their booster doses, and when. The sooner such details are decided upon and circulated, the better.
There is also the question of which type of vaccine to be used for the third dose.
Parallel to addressing these issues, the Government must give top priority to supporting the Institute of Medical Research (IMR) to come up with our own vaccines in double quick time.
CHAIRMAN,
ALLIANCE FOR SAFE COMMUNITY.
