PETALING JAYA: The time to rejoice is yet to come although official figures show that more than half of the adult population in Malaysia has been fully vaccinated.
The problem lies with the undocumented migrants. There is no way to tell how many of them there are in the country, particularly the Klang Valley, making it impossible to ascertain the actual proportion of the population that has been fully vaccinated, health experts warned.
Epidemiologist Datuk Dr Awang Bulgiba Awang Mahmud even expressed doubts over the data provided by the Special Committee on Covid-19 Vaccine Supply.
“The figures are rather uneven throughout the country.”
Given the uncertainty, he said 80% of the population cannot be taken to mean 26.7 million people as it is not certain what the exact population figure is.
“We may have to vaccinate everyone to curb the spread of the coronavirus.”
Awang Bulgiba pointed out that the community that has been missed in the vaccination drive, especially in the Klang Valley, are the undocumented migrants.
“I doubt we have used the correct denominators. I don’t think all migrants have been included, particularly the undocumented ones.”
He said officials should have realised something was amiss when data showed that the number of adults in Kuala Lumpur who had received the first dose exceeded the population of the city.
Recent data released by the Special Committee on Twitter stated that a total of 109.3% of Klang Valley’s adult population had received the first dose.
“In fact, we do not really know the true denominators of the Klang Valley population, so we cannot say that we are close to reaching the 80% target.”
Awang Bulgiba, who chairs the Covid-19 Epidemiological Analysis and Strategies Task Force, recently said that undocumented migrants would continue to be a source of infection if only the registered migrants and Malaysians are vaccinated.
He recommended that as many vaccination centres as possible be opened because there are plenty of people in the migrant population who have yet to be inoculated.
He added that the alarmingly high proportion of “brought in dead” cases among migrants showed that there is an urgent need to vaccinate them.
But while walk-in vaccinations remain available for Malaysians at 13 venues in the Klang Valley, they have stopped admitting foreigners since Monday. However, such foreigners could still seek an appointment to get vaccinated.
On Saturday, the Malaysian Medical Association raised concerns over the order issued to 741 private clinics, hospitals and care centres in Selangor to stop offering vaccines within 48 hours.
However, the Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force said on Sunday that their services could be considered for future immunisation efforts.
Bukit Gasing assemblyman Rajiv Rishyakaran urged the government to decentralise the process by reappointing all general practitioners (GP) who wish to continue administering Covid vaccines.
He said that would help to ease the crowd at vaccination centres, adding that allowing up to 300 GP to undertake the task would also help decrease waiting time.
“Undocumented migrant workers will also feel safer walking into a clinic at which they had sought medical treatment in the past. Let’s make it easier to get the jab so that we can contain the infection sooner,” he said.
Public health expert Dr Victor Hoe said the best way forward is to identify areas with a high number of people who have yet to be vaccinated and have them visit their local GP to get the jab.
“Allow the GP and private hospitals to deliver the vaccine as they are also closer to the community they serve,” he added.
