KUALA LUMPUR – The National Pandemic Management Strategic Plan will be launched soon, said Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba.
He said Pandemic Management Strategic Committee will have 10 working groups and is to be chaired by Senior Minister (Security Cluster) Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob.
The health minister explained that the committee will work on a plan to ensure pandemic management is national in nature.
Dr Adham said he would lead the health security working group which has the responsibility of ensuring that Malaysia managed to reduce risks, and recover from the pandemic.
“A total of 136 initiatives have been drawn up by the working groups and will be implemented within five years,” he said in his speech at the Health Ministry’s (MoH) New Year Mandate ceremony here today.
Dr Adham said the usage of existing health facilities should be optimised through the 3R approach, namely repair, replace and restore.
“Priority is given to enhance the aspects of safety, comfort and more effective facility operations. Special focus should be given to improving necessary health facilities in urban and rural areas,” he said.
Dr Adham also congratulated the Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council (MHTC) for winning the Health and Medical Tourism: Best Destination award at the 2020 Medical Tourism Awards ceremony in London.
“Malaysia has an advantage in the health tourism sector, which recorded 1.3 million tourists in 2019. This sector was affected last year due to Covid-19.
“More strategic and innovative measures need to be formulated to boost the development of private medical sectors and health tourism development,” he said.
On the procurement of Covid-19 vaccines, Dr Adham said he had finalised the country’s 40% guarantee of vaccine supply by signing the advance purchase agreement for the Covid-19 vaccine with several pharmaceutical companies and the Covid-19 Vaccine Global Access (Covax) facility.
“We are actively negotiating with several vaccine manufacturing companies to meet the immunisation needs of Malaysians,” he explained.
Dr Adham said people are placing high hopes in the government to get Covid-19 vaccines.
“Even though Covid-19 vaccines will be given to the people, the awareness campaigns on cultivating the new norms should be intensified in a bid to break the chain of Covid-19 as a vaccine is not a silver bullet,” he said. – Bernama, January 12, 2021
