Teo Nie Ching – Bernama file photo
KUCHING (May 30): Many teachers have bemoaned that they are yet to be vaccinated against Covid-19 despite the government’s promise in March that they would be prioritised in the National Covid-19 Vaccination Programme (NCIP), said Kulai MP Teo Nie Ching.
The former deputy education minister said Putrajaya must explain whether the delay in vaccination for teachers was due to Malaysia not receiving the targeted vaccine supply this month.
“When will the teachers get their vaccine as NCIP coordinating minister Khairy Jamaluddin promised in March, that teachers would be prioritised in NCIP Phase 2?” she queried in a statement today.
Embedded with the statement was a screenshot of Khairy’s tweet dated March 25, that apart from certain economic sectors, all teachers would be prioritised in NCIP Phase 2.
Teo said it had been two months since Khairy tweeted the promise and yet she had received many complaints from teachers that they are still waiting to be given the jab.
“We demand to know how many teachers are vaccinated two months after the announcement. As a matter of fact, teachers are not the only profession that is still waiting for their vaccines.
“Even though being promised that they would be given priority in Phase 2 in April, journalists until today have yet to receive their vaccines,” she said.
Based on the announcement made by the Special Committee on Covid-19 Vaccine Supply Access Guarantee (JKJAV), she said Malaysia should receive at least four million doses of vaccine in May.
The health minister had on May 6 announced that the country would be receiving 3.52 million doses of vaccine from three suppliers namely Pfizer-BioNtech, Sinovac and AstraZeneca in May, she added.
“The question is, how much vaccine did we actually receive in May? Despite being asked my many parties, we do not seem to know how much vaccine we currently posses.”
Teo said she had conducted a quick search on the figures revealed in several past announcements, and this led to her finding that Malaysia received only around 2.1 million doses of vaccine in May.
“This is far from what JKJAV projected or what the health minister announced earlier,” she added.
She felt that Malaysians deserve to be informed of how many vaccines the country currently had, and whether the country had received the amount of vaccines expected.
“At the same time, the teachers together with journalists and other Malaysians also deserve to know when they will get their vaccines,” she added.