Foreigners moving into Malaysia to get COVID-19 vaccine free of charge
11 February, 2021
Foreigners residing in Malaysia will have the COVID-19 vaccine free of charge when Putrajaya rolls out it has the immunisation program from end-February.
In a media affirmation produced on Thursday (Feb 11), Malaysia’s COVID-19 Vaccine Source Access Guarantee Committee stressed that Malaysians will be prioritised to get the vaccination doses but maintained that the decision to include foreigners is key to the success of the programme.
Primary Minister Muhyiddin Yassin had previously announced found in November that COVID-19 vaccines will get for free to Malaysians, adding that the government has no intend to get the vaccination compulsory.
The most recent statement added that the Cabinet approved your choice after considering factors such as how foreign staff encompass a big part of COVID-19 cases in Malaysia’s existing COVID-19 clusters, especially those in the construction, agriculture and manufacturing sectors.
The statement outlined that infections therefore of foreign employees clusters have "excessive costs" due to treatment and quarantine procedures.
Furthermore, the committee added an environment free from COVID-19 will only be performed when as much residents in Malaysia simply because possible are vaccinated.
"Foreign workers have become part of our network and also donate to the country's market," the statement said.
The committee also noted that some countries have provided free vaccination for Malaysians who are based there.
"During this pandemic period, vaccine distribution is a good humane move," the statement added.
The committee added that your choice to provide vaccination to foreigners free of charge was made also since the number of doses obtained by the Malaysian government exceeds the number of Malaysian citizens who are qualified to be inoculated.
"It is also in line with the government's stand to provide the vaccine to as many found in the Malaysian population as feasible so as to obtain herd immunity in overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic," the affirmation said.
The committee outlined that the schedule for vaccination of foreigners will be announced in the future.
Last week, Health Minister Adham Baba said Malaysia would receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines weekly earlier, before the primary phase of the national COVID-19 immunisation plan commences on Feb 26.
He said the vaccine had a need to arrive earlier to ensure that the 7,000 persons tasked with providing the vaccination can be vaccinated initial, according to Bernama.
"We must prioritise those people who are assigned to provide the vaccination, and 7,000 vaccinators have already been picked for early photos," he was quoted as saying.
Health Ministry director-basic Noor Hisham Abdullah said earlier that once delivered, the primary batch of vaccines can come to be distributed nationwide over a period of one to two weeks.
In November, Malaysia said it had agreed to buy 12.8 million dosages of the vaccine jointly developed by the US drugmaker Pfizer and and German spouse BioNTech.
In January, Malaysia signed another handle Pfizer to safe and sound an additional 12.2 million dosages of their vaccine.
The Southeast Asian nation also signed agreements to secure 18.4 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines produced by Russia's Gamaleya Exploration Institute and China's Sinovac.
On Wednesday, Malaysia reported 3,288 brand-new COVID-19 cases, most of that have been in the Klang Valley. The full total number of instances stood at 251,604, with 923 deaths.
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