FRONTLINERS who are in the priority category must be vaccinated immediately, says state Local Government, Housing, Town and Country Planning Committee chairman Jagdeep Singh Deo.
He said they include workers from the Penang Island City Council (MBPP) and Seberang Perai City Council (MBSP) who are daily on the ground to carry out their duties, and hawkers and traders at public markets who are providing essential services daily.
“These people are exposed to high risks daily. Many who have registered have still to receive the vaccine although they in the priority list,” Jagdeep said after visiting the PSC-19 screening site at Dewan Chong Kuang in Sungai Bakap today.
“We thanked the Federal Government for the vaccines we received, but we hope for more supply to accelerate the vaccination process.”
Jagdeep also said the authorities have to look into those who have registered since February or March and have yet to receive vaccine appointment.
Elaborating on the council staff, Jagdeep said MBPP has a workforce of 3,021 of which 2,904 have yet to be vaccinated. So far, a total of 1,639 MBPP staff members have already got their vaccine appointment and 1,256 have not yet received any appointment.
For MBSP, which has 4,010 staff members, 1,650 have so far been vaccinated as of yesterday (July 30 and 1,656 have yet to be vaccinated. Of the 1,656 who have yet to be inoculated, only 440 have received their vaccine appointment.
As for the marketplaces, Jagdeep said out of the 5,358 hawkers and traders at the 29 markets under the jurisdiction of MBPP and 30 markets under the jurisdiction of MBSP, 3,857 of them have not been vaccinated.
MBSP mayor Datuk Rozali, who was also present, said he was concerned about the safety of his Orange Heroes (Wira Oren) as the country celebrates Heroes Day (Hari Pahlawan) today.
His worry stems from the fact that 98 of MBSP staff members had contracted the coronavirus and 36 of them are still active cases. MBSP has 4,010 staff members.
“I am concerned that if the others who are not vaccinated and fall sick in the course of their duty, I will have to withdraw them from the field.
“If they are pulled back for their own health safety, it will affect the garbage collection frequency and impact the public.
“We will then see a lot of uncollected rubbish and clogged drains. This may give rise to dengue cases and we don’t want that to happen,” Rozali said.
Rozali added that three public markets each in north Seberang Perai and central Seberang Perai were recently closed due to Covid-19 cases. Only the public market in Taman Sri Rambai is still closed until further notice.
“This shows the infectivity rate is still high. It’s so important for the Orange Heroes to be vaccinated among the priority groups. I hope no more public markets would have to be closed ” he added.
Sungai Bakap is the 18th venue for the PSC-19 screening programme that was started three weeks ago. The initiative in providing the RTK antigen test is provided free by the state government to target 40,000 people.
So far, a total of 15,909 people have registered for the test. Out of the 13,607 who have been tested, 12,829 (94.28%) were negative and 493 (3.62%) were positive.
In the follow-up polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test for the 493 people, 338 were confirmed positive and they were required to be either home quarantine or be placed at quarantine centres to reduce the spread of infection.
Sungai Bakap assemblyman Dr Amar Pritpal Abdullah urged residents to come out and take advantage of the free screening at the Dewan Chong Kuang from 8.30am to 5pm today.
“As a doctor, I want to stress the importance of early detection for this exercise,” he said.
Also present were Jawi assemblyman Jason H’ng Mooi Lye and Bukit Tambun assemblyman Goh Choon Aik.
Below are the locations for the PSC-19 screening programme:
July 31
Sungai Bakap
Dewan Chong Kuang, Jalan Besar Sungai Bakap
July 31
Telok Bahang
Balai Rakyat Telok Bahang
Aug 1
Jawi / Sungai Acheh
Gelanggang Bola Keranjang, Jalan Bukit 1, Nibong Tebal
Aug 1
Batu Maung
Dewan Serbaguna Permatang Samar Laut
Aug 2
Sungai Puyu
Dewan Terbuka MPKK Taman Lucky
Aug 3
Bagan Dalam
Flat Bagan Dalam parking lots
Aug 4
Teluk Air Tawar
Dewan Taman Air Tawar Indah
Aug 5
Komtar
Komtar compound (In front of Kak Ija & Jeff restaurant)
Aug 6
Pantai Jerejak
Dewan MPKK Sungai Nibong Besar
Those interested to undergo screening can register at https://penangsaring.selangkah.my or through their respective service centres.
Story by K.H. Ong
Pix courtesy of YB Jagdeep’s office