KUALA LUMPUR, June 23: To help the government expedite the vaccination process to meet its immunisitation goal, Senior Education Minister Datuk Mohd Radzi Md Jidin has offered public schools to be used as COVID-19 vaccination centres.
However, the matter is subject to the National Security Council’s decision regarding when the students will be vaccinated.
“The Covid-19 Vaccine Supply Access Guarantee (JKJAV) will look into this and on our side, we are ready to help. We will provide whatever help they need,” Radzi said.
“What is important is that we carry out the vaccination drive for our students,” he added.
The Star Online reported Radzi as saying that the Ministry Of Education (Moe) is ready to assist in vaccination drive in line with the National Recovery Plan (NRP), but said that it is dependent on the vaccine supplies.
He added that the Ministry had requested the COVID-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF) to prioritise vaccinating exam taking students and teachers, specifically the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) and Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia (STPM), to ensure that they could return to schools before its expected reopening in the phase three of the NRP.
Earlier, the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA) approved the use of vaccines for children above 12. This then prompted the MOE to convince the COVID-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF) to prioritise exam-year taking students for vaccination.
Meanwhile, on the issue of school reopening, he said the ministry is implementing strategies to improve on the standard operating procedure (SOP), citing that the current SOP had helped in preventing the spread of the covid-19 virus in schools thus far.
