PUTRAJAYA, Mar 4: Individuals who jump queue to receive the Covid-19 vaccine jabs can be fined not more than RM50,000 or jailed not more than six months, or both, health minister Dr Adham Baba said today.
He said such action could be taken under Section 31, which is a new provision under the Emergency (Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases) (Amendment) Ordinance 2021, which comes into effect on March 11.
He said Section 31 provided for the imposition of penalties under the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988 (Act 342) for any offence not specified in it.
“Regulations made under this new subsection may prescribe any act which contravenes the regulations to be an offence and shall be liable to a fine not exceeding RM50,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or both,” he said.
He said this at a joint press conference with de facto law minister Takiyuddin Hassan at the health ministry here yesterday.
Adham said that, for now, the health ministry had not received any report regarding queue jumping for Covid-19 vaccine jabs.
“So far there have been no reports regarding this matter, it’s just news on social media,” he said.
On Monday, coordinating minister for the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme Khairy Jamaluddin said the government had established “Guidelines to Determine List of Frontliners” to avoid queue jumping under the Covid-19 vaccination programme.
Khairy, who is also the science, technology and innovation minister, said the decision was made at the Covid-19 Vaccine Supply Access Guarantee Special Committee meeting in which the guidelines provided details on frontliners.
Khairy said the guidelines had been signed by him and Adham and uploaded on https://www.vaksincovid.gov.my/, with the link also available on the websites of both ministries.
