PETALING JAYA: The National Recovery Plan (NRP) has provided employers with a realistic roadmap to return life to normalcy by year end but there is also a need to put in place long term safeguards to ensure that Malaysia would not have to face the lockdown situation again.
However, the roadmap spread over four phases for recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic should include the setting up of a national vaccine centre, the Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) said yesterday.
Its president, Datuk Dr Syed Husman Syed Husman(pix), called for the vaccination centre to be set up to deal with issues of long-term vaccine supply and its efficacy by harnessing the utilisation of local experts and resources.
“Though the number of people being vaccinated has been encouraging recently, the supply of vaccines is often disrupted by high demand, due to factors such as increased orders for third boosters by other countries to deal with the emergence of Covid-19 variants and mutations,” he said in a statement.
“The setting up of our own specialised vaccine research centre would look into the long-term prospects of producing our own vaccines without the need to depend on others.
“Success of breaking the chain of Covid-19 infections is largely determined by the supply of vaccines and the number of people being vaccinated regardless of how strictly we abide by the SOP.”
