KUCHING: The Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) has approved the Welfare, Community Wellbeing, Women, Family and Childhood Development Ministry’s application to vaccinate early childhood educators and caregivers in the state under the first phase of the Covid-19 Immunisation Programme.
Its minister Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah said that with this, a total of 5,703 educators and caregivers from registered kindergartens and nurseries would be given priority to get the vaccine as they were considered as frontliners.
“During the first Early Childhood Development Council meeting on March 9, one of the decisions made was to apply to the SDMC to ensure that nurseries and kindergartens’ educators and caregivers were given the priority to get the vaccine under the first phase like other medical frontliners.
“We see this as important because the educators and caregivers play an important role in giving support to working parents and they have physical contacts with young children. They will need to carry small children when they cry, lead children to the toilet, help them in learning and play activities and others,” she told a press conference at her office at Baitul Makmur Building II on Monday (Mar 15).
She said these educators and caregivers needed to be given the vaccine for protection as well as ensuring the safety of the children.
“We want to thank SDMC chairman Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas because he has approved our application and we have submitted the name list of the educators and caregivers on March 11 to SDMC,” she said.
Fatimah added that for preschool educators of schools registered under the Ministry of Education Malaysia (MOE), their names had already been listed as vaccine recipients under the ministry.
“The SDMC will decide when the educators and caregivers will get the vaccine and while waiting, they must also register themselves to confirm that they accept and agree to get the vaccine,” she said.
Fatimah added the educators and caregivers could either register through the MySejahtera application or at the nearest Government Health Clinic or District Office or at www.vaksincovid.gov.my.
In the meantime, the minister reminded early childhood institutions to comply with the Covid-19 related standard operating procedures (SOPs) during their operations.
“The SOPs that have been issued are complete because they contain things that need to be implemented not only by the employers and educators or caregivers but also the role of parents. They include SOPs before, during and after attending the kindergartens and nurseries,” she explained. As of Feb 28, of the 2,968 registered early childhood institutions in Sarawak, 1,702 were operating in the conditional movement control order (CMCO) areas.
