Yesterday (29 July), photos and videos of the massive crowd in Mines International Exhibition & Convention Centre (MIECC) and Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (KLCC) vaccination centre (PPV) waiting for their vaccination appointment flooded the social media.
The incident is believed to have happened after employers had sent all of their employees to the PPVs for their vaccination appointment without considering their the time of their appointment.
Nonetheless, the Special Committee on COVID-19 Vaccine Supply (JKJAV) had responded to the incident and have release a statement to explain on the incident, as well as their steps to prevent this from happening again in the future.
In the statement, JKJAV clarified that the majority of the vaccine recipients were foreign workers and the situation was made worse as these foreign workers faced difficulties in filling the forms and getting the MySejahtera app installed in their mobile phones.
It is estimated that each foreign worker takes around 5 minutes to get these documentation done before they go for the vaccination. On the other hand, there were translators at the scene who helped with the communication works, but the process still requires time.
These factors then led to the crowding at the PPVs and risk the spread of the Covid-19 among the crowd.
Meanwhile, the JKJAV had devised some initiatives to reduce the crowding at PPVs. Among them were to work with the Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM) to restrict the entry of vehicles such as buses from outside the Klang Valley carrying either foreign workers or Malaysians en masse to get vaccinated in Klang Valley.
In addition, they had moved the appointments of some vaccine recipients to another date to reduce the number of attendees at the PPVs, so as to reduce the crowding too.
Lastly, the JKJAV will consider whether is there a need to set up PPVs specifically for foreign workers, where their native language will be used at the centres. It is believed that this will ease the communication barrier and smoothen the process.
JKJAV gave its assurance that they will continue to monitor the situation and take appropriate action to tackle the issue that arises from time to time.
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Read the statement from JKJAV here:
