Dr Kelvin Yii
KUCHING (June 14): Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii has proposed that the government start making proactive plans to vaccinate adolescents and migrants in order to achieve the required 80 per cent herd immunity in Malaysia.
The Democratic Action Party lawmaker said he welcomed Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin’s recent statement that the government is expecting Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and Sarawak to achieve herd immunity as early as August.
“However, such target will not be achieved if we do not include these two important groups which make a significant chunk of our community,” he said in a statement today.
Dr Yii, who is Parliamentary Select Committee for Health, Science and Innovation chair, said children aged between 12 and 18 made up about 30 per cent of the country’s population.
He said the number of migrants, be they documented or undocumented, was estimated at five million.
“In order to reach sufficient rates of Covid-19 vaccination in the population, the government must find ways to identify and include them as part of the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (NCIP) as soon as possible.”
He said it was reported that 82,341 children had been infected with Covid-19 from Jan 25 last year to May 30 this year, and the vast majority happened this year.
He said infections had happened to children of all ages including 19,851 of those under the age of five.
He said Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah had reported that three children aged five and below had died of Covi-19 in the first five months this year.
He said Dr Noor Hisham added that 27 children had been admitted to paediatric intensive care units (PICUs) this year, with 19 of them aged under five.
“There is a growing evidence that children can suffer from the virus and be unwell for months after the infection. Although, more data and research are required to come up with a more comprehensive conclusion including determining the size and severity of this problem in children,” said Dr Yii.
He observed that even though the severity of symptoms in children were lesser in most cases, there was still risk that children can and do spread Covid-19 to adults which may have more devastating effects especially among the elderly.
“And with the views of children being exposed in public areas such as schools once they open, it is important that we find ways to protect them better.”
Globally, he said countries such as the USA, Canada, Singapore, the UK, France, Germany and Japan had given approval for children aged from 12 to 18 to be vaccinated based on available data of vaccine safety for children.
In Malaysia, Dr Yii believed that the government can make the necessary arrangements to first open registrations to children aged between 12 and 18 to get vaccinated after the high-risk groups in Phase 2 and economic frontliners were covered.
He said the government must open registration early to educate public on its importance and safety for children and make sure parents register their children early.
“We cannot wait until the last minute as we will need to monitor registration rates and if needed take necessary interventions if not, we may not achieve the needed herd immunity on time.
“On top of that, we must be compassionate and provide some form of protection for the migrant community for them to come out to be vaccinated,” he said.
According to Dr Yii, the harder the government clamps down on the migrants, the more they will go into hiding.
As such, he said the government must look at the issue in the lens of public health rather than of politics.
“The current hardline stance taken by Home Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainuddin will just hinder the efforts by our healthcare officers and not only cause us not to achieve the necessary herd immunity, but also allow the outbreak to continue to damage even our country’s economy,” he added.