SELANGOR MAY BAN KIDS FROM BAZAARS
Health experts raise concerns about risk of infection among children not fully vaccinated against Covid-19
SELANGOR will deliberate the call by health experts that children below 12 to be banned from entering Ramadan bazaars amid concerns that a large number of them have not been vaccinated against Covid-19.
Local Government, Public Transport and New Village Development Committee chairman Ng Sze Han said they would discuss the matter at the next executive council meeting.
“For now, the People’s Volunteer Corps personnel and local council enforcement officers have been deployed at all Ramadan bazaars in the state to monitor the crowd and to ensure that they comply with the standard operating procedures (SOP).
“If possible, parents should avoid bringing their children to crowded places if they are not fully vaccinated.” he told the New Sunday Times.
National Security Council director-general Datuk Rodzi Md Saad had, last month, said it would not issue specific SOP for Ramadan bazaars unlike the previous years.
The SOP this year, he said, was subjected to the conditions set by the local authorities.
The Malaysian Federation of Hawkers and Petty Traders’ Association, and the
Federal Territory Bumiputera Traders’ Association, have urged the Health Ministry to come up with the ban and related SOP as bazaar organisers had no power to bar people from entering their compounds.
Up to April 8, the ministry’s CovidNow Portal showed that only 2.2 per cent or 77,834 children have been fully inoculated, and 38.3 per cent or 1,358,791 have received one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.
Last month, the ministry on its official Twitter account said the admission of children to paediatric Intensive Care Units due to Covid-19 shot up by 94 per cent for Categories 3 to 5 infections.
It logged 200 and 125 cases in Categories 4 and 5, respectively.
Hospital Raja Perempuan Zainab II paediatric cardiologist Professor Dr Abdul Rahim Wong urged parents against
taking their young and unvaccinated children outdoors.
The Kota Barubased professor said the low vaccination rates among children in the state meant that the hospital had a whole ward dedicated to children infected with Covid-19.
Dr Abdul Rahim, who has treated children with multi-system inflammatory syndrome associated with Covid-19, said their paediatric high-dependency unit had been converted into a Covid19 paediatric unit.
Last month, Deputy Health Minister Datuk Dr Noor Azmi Ghazali said 39 children aged between 5 and 11 had died of Covid19 since 2020.