by S BIRRUNTHA / pic by HUSSEIN SHAHARUDDIN

THE Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) welcomes the Selangor government’s move to recruit more general practitioners (GPs) to facilitate the Selangor Covid-19 Vaccination Programme (SCVP).

Its president Dr Subramaniam Muniandy said getting more than 1,000 private GPs on board the SCVP is indeed the right move as speed, convenience and accessibility are important in increasing vaccination uptake. 

“MMA is confident more GPs will participate.

“We are targeting a participation of around 2,000 GPs in Selangor and in bordering areas in Kuala Lumpur,” he said in a statement today.

Subramaniam also welcomed Selangor’s move to obtain more than 500,000 vaccine doses directly from a vaccine manufacturer for older persons, the industrial, manufacturing and services sectors as well as adolescents in the state.

“We look forward to its successful implementation. It was confirmed in a media report that the vaccines are one of the three approved by the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA),” he said.

Meanwhile, he also called other state governments to follow Selangor’s approach, which has ramped up mass screening efforts and procured additional vaccine doses.

Selangor has been undertaking screening exercises since last month, with more than 100,000 residents screened over the first two phases of the initiative and a further 100,000 targeted in phase three.

“Other state governments should consider similar vaccination and screening programmes. States seeing an increase in transmissions should be screening the community and speeding up their vaccinations. 

“We should not be waiting for a surge in cases. In managing the pandemic, we need to act fast to protect lives and livelihood,” he added.

Dr Subramaniam also lauded Selangor’s extension of its free Covid-19 screening programme which has had notable success detecting ‘silent carriers’ of the disease in the state. 

Selangor, the most developed state with the largest population is currently the worst hit state with the highest number of Covid-19 cases. 

Dr Subramaniam said this effort to increase vaccine uptake will be a much needed boost to break the chain of infections, speed up economic recovery in the state and protect against any future disruptions in all sectors.