KUCHING: The ‘vaccinate first, register later’ approach, adopted by Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg in combating the Covid-19 pandemic has attracted attention in Malaya.
Abang Johari first announced the approach during his visit to Kapit on June 7.
Today, former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, when appearing as a guest in a programme, Wawancara Eksklusif Bersama Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, which was aired live on Sinar Harian Facebook, echoed the idea.
He said the process of dispensing Covid-19 vaccine to the people in the country need not require prior registration and should instead be given the vaccine shots first.
Dr Mahathir said the existing procedure of dispensing Covid-19 vaccine to Malaysians should be improved by dispensing vaccine more efficiently and thus controlling the spread of the pandemic.
He also echoed Abang Johari’s reasoning that the present method which requires the people to register using their mobile phones caused many to wait up to three months to get vaccinated.
“Vaccination centres may also be far from the people. Why not let the government go to the people? Registration is not necessary. Anybody can be vaccinated by bringing their identity cards for the purpose of recording their data in the system. What is the use of MySejahtera? These are all bureaucracies,” he added.
Abang Johari when announcing the approach said it was aimed at speeding up and widening the Covid-19 vaccination programme, particularly in rural Sarawak.
It was also to enable eligible Sarawakians to be vaccinated within the scheduled timeframe, he added.
Bernama, in a news report today, quoted Dr Mahathir as having said that the United States was able to vaccinate three million people a day via the drive-through system, and he believed that vaccination in a village could be handled by a doctor, two nurses and an assistant.
He said Malaysia is too worried and took time to test each type of vaccine when the vaccines were already in use in various countries.
