KUALA LUMPUR – Former minister Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz has raised concerns that mega vaccination centres (PPVs) will lead to Covid-19 clusters and long waiting hours.
The government should instead, she said, have appropriately sized PPVs in every district using community or multipurpose halls, with more manageable numbers of people, making it easier to enforce health standard operating procedures.
Her comments posted on her Facebook page came after Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin yesterday announced five more mega PPVs in the Klang Valley.
They are The Mines Convention Centre, UiTM Puncak Alam and Setia City Convention Centre in Selangor, and the KL Convention Centre and the Bukit Jalil National Stadium compound here.
Rafidah said more mega PPVs could lead to the unintended formation of vaccination centre clusters arising from unmanageable and uncontrolled crowds who have been made to wait for hours, as well as errors in appointments.
“This is an inconvenience to many who have to travel across district borders to get to the mega centres. In fact, my friend who lives in Bukit Jelutong, Selangor was allotted an appointment for her vaccination in Selama, Perak.
“We cannot be wasting time and money doing things on a mega scale. We might, God forbid, end up with mega problems, mega clusters, and new mega Covid-19 waves. We must be realistic and effective. No time for politicking and mega approaches,” she wrote.
She proposed that PPVs be set up in every district to serve only people living in that district to help with efficient and effective record-keeping and traceability.
“We don’t need a mega RM70 million IT set up for this common sense approach because of the targeted vaccination groups. All data collected at these district centres can then be collated by the district health departments, escalated to the state health office for analysis and transmission to the federal Health Department.
“I would like to urge that Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah be included as a member of the vaccination centre committee. I was shocked that the DG is not a member of that important vaccination committee.
“How is the DG excluded when healthcare infrastructure needs to be mobilised to the optimum, including both public and private sector entities?” – The Vibes, May 31, 2021
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