Sin Chew Daily

While launching the immunization program handbook on Tuesday, PM Muhyiddin said comprehensive immunization program would create the herd immunity effect to break the infection chain and eventually end the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said this is not just for our own protection, but will also protect our friends and families, community, colleagues and people around us at the same time.

He hoped all Malaysians would take part in this program as it is the "ray of hope" for us to win this war against the coronavirus.

The PM will receive the jab on the same day as medical frontliners on February 26. Others such as elected representatives and high-risk individuals will also be among the first batch recipients of COVID-19 vaccines.

Our vaccination program will kickstart at the end of this month and will be carried out in three phases based on an individual's occupational risks, age group, health conditions, etc. The first phase will be from end-February to April, second phase from April to August, and third phase from May to next February.

Members of the public can visit www.VaksinCovid.gov.my for details and register for this program.

Indeed, we need to stay united to win this war. Other than those suffering from allergies, all Malaysians are encouraged to take part in the immunization program.

According to the program handbook, concerns about late delivery of vaccines and under-dosage have now been solved, as we have acquired 66.7 million doses from five manufacturers through the COVAX mechanism, meaning we will have sufficient doses to meet the needs of all Malaysians as well as foreigners and migrant workers.

As Muhyiddin has said, the vaccine is our ray of hope to end this pandemic. Since the country reported its first imported case on January 25 last year, in almost 13 months the government has introduced various versions of MCOs, SOPs and even an emergency ordinance, among others, while Malaysians have stood united to fight the virus together, although the results have not been completely satisfactory.

As of Tuesday, we have reported more than 272,000 positive COVID-19 cases so far, with over 41,000 active cases.

Although we have witnessed a downtrend in daily new infection numbers over the past one week, this has been achieved mainly due to the fewer tests carried out each day.

As a matter of fact, the positive rate has jumped from 5.4% to 10.2% in five days, making vaccination our only potent weapon to defeat the virus.

Countries that started their vaccination programs early have reported very encouraging results while serious side effects are rare.

Since December 8 last year, more than 15 million people in the UK have been vaccinated, and single-day new infection numbers have plunged by 84.4% from the Jan 6 record of 62,556 cases to only 9,774 on Monday.

Meanwhile in Israel, statistics show that the efficacy of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is as high as 94% among half a million people already vaccinated.

Unfortunately in Malaysia, a survey conducted by the health ministry late last year showed that some 33% Malaysians were unwilling to receive the jabs, mainly for fear of adverse effects and complications.

PM Muhyiddin has said only a minority of people may present slight adverse effects after vaccination, such as lethargy, headache, muscle pain, etc.

As such, unless an individual has allergy history, we encourage the 33% reluctant Malaysians to take part in the vaccination program for the sake of herd immunity.

No doubt we have sacrificed a lot over the past one year dealing with the virus. Our GDP contracted by 5.6% last year while the treasury's revenue shrank by RM84 billion.

In addition to economic fallout, the MCO has also had major impact on our day-to-day living as well as the country's education and healthcare systems.

We cannot afford to keep enforcing the MCO over a protracted period of time, and we need the participation of all Malaysians in this vaccination program to free ourselves from the scourge of this virus.