SHAH ALAM, May 19 — Selangor does not want a full lockdown but will abide if directed by the Federal Government under the Emergency Ordinance, said State Public Health, Unity, Women and Family Development Committee chairman Dr Siti Mariah Mahmud.
Commenting on a full Movement Control Order (MCO) proposed by Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba earlier, Dr Siti Mariah said the move would give negative impact to the economic growth of the state.
She said the state government is of the view that a full MCO could not fully prevent COVID-19 infection if the source of transmission was not properly controlled especially from industrial areas to infect the community.
“We do not want people being unable to go out to work. So to enable them go to work, we should focus on areas which have many clusters,” she said.
Apart from that, large scale COVID-19 screening tests and vaccination should be carried out in Selangor to ensure the MCO is effective.
As at Tuesday, 3.3 per cent of Selangor residents have been vaccinated through the National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme.
In this regard, the Selangor state government has expressed its intention to procure vaccine for priority groups despite the federal government’s assurance to provide free vaccine to all Malaysians.
“We have informed the central government that Selangor will be focusing on workers as the state is dependent on factories and industries which contribute almost 25 per cent of Malaysia’s Gross Domestic Product,” she said.
As such, Selangor is taking the initiative to provide vaccine and employers are willing to purchase the vaccine for their workers as they do not want to suffer losses over closure of factory due to COVID-19 cases.
In another development, Dr Siti Mariah said the state government through Selgate Corporation has also booked 2.5 million doses of vaccine from one of the three suppliers namely Pfizer-BioNTech, Sinovac and AstraZeneca which is expected to arrive in June.
“We have reached the final stage (discussion and purchase), and Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari is expected to announce the vaccine purchase next week,” she said.
So far, 3,500 companies in the state have stated their interest to buy the vaccine procured by the state government through SElangkah VAX programme, a vaccination programme under SELangkah which would benefit more than one million workers in the industrial sector.
“For traders and small factories, small and medium industry (SMI), the government would be providing them with free vaccine,” she said.
Commenting on the SELangkah Community Screening programme which was held at 10 state constituencies since May 8, Dr Siti Mariah said 643 individuals were tested positive from more than 11,000 people who attended the programme.
