PETALING JAYA: About 5,000 community pharmacists have asked to be among those given Covid-19 vaccines early as they are frontliners in an essential service.
In making this call, the Malaysian Pharmacists Association (MPS) said this involved those working in the retail sector and faced high risk as they came into contact with the public daily.
“With the community pharmacists properly vaccinated, it will be safe for the public to seek their professional consultation with confidence.
“The community pharmacy service is recognised as an essential one under the movement control order (MCO),” its president Amrahi Buang said in a statement.
The government had said that people in essential services (including health care and law enforcement), those with an increased risk of developing severe disease from Covid-19, and others in settings with increased risk of transmission, like prisons, immigration detention facilities and workers’ dorms, will be given priority.
On a related matter, the MPS urged the government to consider authorising community pharmacists to administer the Covid-19 vaccines to the public.
“According to International Pharmaceutical Federation data from 2020, in at least 86 countries, pharmacies play a variety of roles in vaccination advocacy, awareness and advice.
“And in at least 36 countries, they play an active role in administering vaccinations,” Amrahi said.
He said this would help ensure the health system’s readiness for mass immunisation against Covid-19 and any future pandemics as soon as vaccines are available.
“It will also increase convenience of access for Malaysians and help the nation achieve vaccination coverage and collective immunity as quickly as possible.”