By Michael Tay, who is the Johor Covid-19 Pandemic Taskforce chairman.
I would like to inform the public that I have received my first shot of the Covid-19 vaccine on 23rd May and the side effects were pretty mild. I’m looking forward to getting my second shot on the 13th of June.
I’m saying this to reassure some people who have come up to me and expressed reluctance to sign up for vaccination out of fear that there’ll be adverse effects after the vaccination.
I assure you there is nothing to worry about. Everyone will react differently to the vaccine but for a person who has been vaccinated, the chances of dying from Covid-19 is significantly reduced.
So, I urge everyone to sign up at MySejahtera if they have not done so yet. There are some who have registered since January but have not received any notifications yet. I would like the relevant authorities to expedite the vaccination for those who have already registered.
For those who do not know how to register, please reach out for help as there are numerous support channels. Please get yourselves registered to have better protection against the virus.
I experienced only mild side effects after the first dose in May, but reading these articles is really making my head spin. No, there’s nothing wrong with the news reports but the figures are mind-boggling.
In this article, it was stated Johor will receive up to 100,000 more Covid-19 jabs so that the Johor-Singapore borders can be re-open in June.
In another report, as of May 17, the number of people who have been vaccinated in the state was not even 10 per cent. Only 104,263 or 8.49 per cent have received their first dose while 70,488 or 5.74% have received two doses. The number of people who have registered was reportedly 1.22 million.
In another report, several community leaders noted that 1.5 million of Johor’s 3.6 million residents have registered for the vaccines but there were only 26 Covid-19 centres throughout Johor. This translates to about 50,000 people or 100,000 doses of vaccine per vaccination centre.
Then there was a very optimistic article where Pharmaniaga Berhad said it has the capacity to churn out 12 million doses to the Federal Government.
And most recently, Johor Menteri Besar Datuk Hasni Mohammad said the state is trying to get half a million doses of vaccines from Singapore and China to boost the State’s Immunisation Programme?
All is good. Everyone’s making the effort to battle the coronavirus.
For Johor to achieve herd immunity through vaccination, about 80% of the population will need to be innoculated.
With the Movement Control Order enforced, the number of cases is still very high. I can’t imagine what the numbers will be if there were no MCO.
But what still baffles me is the numbers. I would like the coordinating minister for the National Immunisation Programme, Khairy Jamaluddin to provide us more concrete answers and not just utter promises.
Are we able to achieve the target if those who have registered in January are still waiting for their turn? And what about those who have yet to register?
Even after the Singapore-Johor borders are re-opened, I doubt the situation will return to normal anytime soon as the spending power of the people and mindsets have changed due to the pandemic.
With 2.8 million of the population in Johor still waiting for their vaccination in order to achieve herd immunity in the shortest possible time so that the economy can thrive again, we’re really counting on the Federal Government, our neighbour and also China for some assistance.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in Your Say are those of the contributor, not the blog owner.
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