THE article headlined “All-out war only way” (theSun on June 28) is an apt description, as our government needs to urgently and systemically speed up vaccination to stave off the dire Delta variant threat.
Indeed, a two-pronged approach is essential to enable Malaysia to build a strong defence against the spread of this more virulent strain. Hence, besides ramping up the screening process to identify positive cases and faster vaccination rates, the people must continue with strictly practising
Covid-safe practices.
Fighting Covid is indeed like fighting a war. Proactive “outside the box” action has prompted Australia to appoint an army lieutenant general to plan and coordinate a “military-style” scale up of the critical vaccination process.
Often in Australia, the defence forces are called on to help with fire, flood or earthquake disasters. Note too, that in Scotland, the army is used to help accelerate the variant vaccine roll-out.
Malaysia is way behind, with only 6.2% of our population fully vaccinated as compared with the US (45.5%), and much of Europe (for example, the
UK (47.5%), returning to some
semi-normality, with Covid deaths dropping as their vaccines rolled out at a faster pace.
Our government and health authorities need to urgently press the reset button and implement the rollout with military vigour and precision.
Besides vaccination hubs, pharmacists and general practitioners must be urgently and promptly involved, and supplies ensured to dramatically lift our vaccination rates.
Arguably, a much higher vaccination rate would have enabled us to better deal with the impact of our current outbreak.
It will also allow us to have some semblance of normalcy living with Covid and help reduce the sudden
snap lockdowns and restrictions that are severely disrupting our economy and societ
