The Ministry of Health Malaysia (MoH) has highlighted that any group wanting to be among the early recipients of the Covid-19 vaccine can submit the applications to the Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF) including media practitioners.
Health Minister, Dr. Adham Baba said MoH has yet to receive any listings from the media, and if there is an application, MoH would also submit it to the CITF for further action.
“The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme had been systematically arranged according to phases and any application to receive the vaccine earlier would be decided based on metrics and methods set by the CITF.
“CITF supports the idea as media personnel were equivalent to frontliners very well,” he added.
The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) President, Farah Marshita Abdul Patah said NUJ had submitted a list of practitioners’ names in March and wants further clarification as to when media personnels would be vaccinated.
“We have been recognised as frontliners just like uniformed officers from government agencies. As such we hope that the Health Ministry takes this matter seriously and vaccinates media personnel as soon as possible,” she highlighted.
On April 12, the Coordinating Minister of the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme, Khairy Jamaluddin said members of the media would be put on the priority list.
