GRACE PERIOD FOR ELDERLY TO GET JABBED BEFORE 4TH NIP - DAP

Chan Foong Hin (left) and Phoong Jin Zhe.

15 June 2021

By Wartawan Nabalu News

KOTA KINABALU: There must be a grace period to encourage more senior citizens to get vaccinated before providing to critical sectors on the fourth stage of the national immunisation programme (NIP), said Sabah Democratic Action Party (DAP).

In a joint statement today, its secretary Chan Foong Hin and socialist youth chief Phoong Jin Zhe said while the move to vaccinate those in the critical sectors is welcomed, there is a need to prioritise high-risk groups.

"We would like to suggest to have a two weeks long 'grace period' before the rollout in the fourth stage of the NIP to ensure that senior citizens would continue to have the opportunity to be fully vaccinated.

"During the 'grace period', senior citizens should be allowed to walk-in to nearby vaccination centres to take their jab without having any appointments," their statement which was issued today read.

They reasoned that they have been receiving more than 10 daily complaints relating to vaccine appointment and that the majority of senior citizens are still waiting for theirs even though they have registered months ago.

Many senior citizens also do not possess smartphones and are not tech-savvy to utilise the MySejahtera application and this is a huge challenge and inconvenience to them, they said, adding that many of them missed their appointments due to the complexity of the application.

"We truly hope that the government would take these inconveniences into consideration and provide the senior citizens with a more convenient platform to be vaccinated.

"DAP is consistently adopting the whole of society approach promoted by the World Health Organization (WHO) and is happy to work with related stakeholders and authorities to ensure that the vaccination program would run smoothly.

"We are looking forward to organising more outreach programmes like how we set up registration booths to encourage the public to register for the COVID-19 vaccine."