Press Statement By Irene Chang:
When is SDMC and our State Government going to help those people who have been vaccinated but their MySejahtera has not been updated with their latest vaccination status? We have received many complaints from those who have received both first and second doses of their vaccine and yet they have not been issued with the digital certificate. Or there are those who have received their digital certificate in their MySejahtera but their certificate does not show the vaccine details of their manufacturer and their batch number, in other words the type of vaccine which had been administered.
With every country anxiously finding ways and means to rebuild and re-activate their economy without compromising on the need to keep the pandemic at bay, it is inevitable that there would come the day when the proof of vaccination, with complete details of the type of vaccine given, would be required before people are being allowed to travel freely and to participate in economic and social activities, especially in international events. This is so especially for students who need to travel to other states or countries for further studies and for those people who need to travel abroad for their work. The digital certificate would be their “Covid-19 vaccination passport” which is already being considered to be introduced by the Federal Government as a requirement for interstate, inter-district and international travel (“The Star – 20 th June 2021). And the question is if the certificate is lacking in details, would that later pose a problem even within Malaysia itself.
For those who have still not receive the digital certificate in their MySejahtera despite their 2 doses, it is foreseeable that problem may arise if they have also mislaid their vaccination appointment cards. These people may then be wrongly discriminated against and prevented from patronizing certain premises as well as to trade in these premises.
The trend toward proof of vaccination can already be seen locally where the operators in the Taman Selera Harmoni Food Court took the extra precautionary measure to only receive customers who have at least one dose of vaccine. The same can be said for SDMC’s latest SOP on requiring the eateries workers to be vaccinated with at least one dose before their eateries are allowed to operate. These are all commendable measures taken to keep the Covid-19 numbers down and to boost confidence in the local business. The State Government should therefore complement these efforts by making sure that the proof of complete details of vaccination is available to all those who have been vaccinated so that no one would be discriminate against for the lack of proof in their MySejahtera through no fault of their own.
Furthermore, it should also be considered that while locally, vaccination appointment cards may be acceptable for now as proof of vaccination, they may not be sufficient to prove vaccination in other states and countries in the future.
SDMC and the State Government should therefore urgently resolve this issue with the Federal Minister concerned, the Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF) and the MySejahtera administrators. They should not continue to turn a blind eye to this dilemma faced by the people and which might cause them dire economic and social consequences in the future. In fact, I am sure that they are aware of this issue which has been highlighted since a few months back but which have not received any satisfactory solution from either CITF or MySejahtera.
