‘Accelerate immunisation rather than ‘non-serious’ Movement Control Order’

Bukit Mertajam MP Steven Sim asserts that the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government should accelerate the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (NCIP) rather than enforcing ‘non-serious’ Movement Control Order (MCO).

In a statement yesterday, the Democratic Action Party (DAP) lawmaker accused the PN government of failing Malaysians in light of the worsening Covid-19 situation in the country with daily new cases hitting 4,855 on May 13 with high daily deaths at 39 on May 12.

He pointed out that the current MCO being enforced nationwide except Sarawak and Sabah until June 7 would serve very little purposes in stopping the spread of Covid-19 since the restrictions were not imposed equally based on facts and data.

“MCO 2.0 and now MCO 3.0 are non-serious because the SOP (standard operating procedures) does not apply to VIPs such as cabinet members and dignitaries who will not be penalised even if they violate the SOP.

“This MCO is implemented without the 3T which is testing, tracing and treatment. States such as Perlis that did not record any new cases are also subject to MCO,” he lamented.

Sim observed the current MCO had been regarded as a move to make life difficult for most people, unlike the first MCO enforced from March 18 last year when people were willing to sacrifice to break the chain of infections.

He said most people were encouraged to

MCO 2.0 and now MCO 3.0 are nonserious because the SOP (standard operating procedures) does not apply to VIPs such as cabinet members and dignitaries who will not be penalised even if they violate the SOP. This MCO is implemented without the 3T which is testing, tracing and treatment. States such as Perlis that did not record any new cases are also subject to MCO.

Steven Sim

make sacrifices but the government’s strategy had not produced the desired results.

“It is high time for the government to double up its efforts to accelerate the NCIP to achieve the goal of vaccinating up to 80 per cent of the population by end of this year.”

As of May 12, Sim said only 41.6 per cent or 10.1 million people across the country had registered for the NCIP.

He said the NCIP second phase aimed to see 30.9 per cent or 9.4 million people completing both doses of the Covid-19 vaccine.

However, he said that only 732,305 people had completed their vaccination as of May 12.

Given this, he wondered if the government was able to achieve the set goal.

“The government has said that among the factors that slow the vaccination rate is the lack of vaccine supply and that the supply will increase in June.

“Yet, can the government guarantee that the vaccine supply will be received in June?

“If we succeed in receiving the supply, will the existing process be able to increase the daily vaccination rate to reach 9.4 million people by August this year?” he asked.

Sim felt that the government’s target of vaccinating 160,000 people per day for NCIP phase 2 was not convincing as this was more than three times the current capacity of 40,000 to 50,000 people per day.

He reminded all that the NCIP was already into its second month during this phase 2.

“The government needs to do everything including injecting fund into increasing both the supply of vaccines as soon as possible and the daily vaccination rate to reach 80 per cent of the Malaysian population by the end of this year as targeted.

“We have no other choice. The government should stop playing with the lives of the people with non-serious MCO strategies.

“We better put all efforts to speed up the vaccination process,” he added.