Day: October 18, 2021

— A mercy flight to ferry five boxes of human organs for the use of patients at the Kuala Lumpur Hospital (HKL) was carried out from the Melaka International Airport (LTAM), here today.

Melaka Fire and Rescue Department (JBPM) director Abu Bakar Katain said the Agusta AW189 helicopter which took off from LTAM at 2.36 pm took over an hour to reach HKL.

“This mission used an air ambulance to speed up the delivery to save lives, ensure the integrity of the organs transferred and quality of the delivery,” he said in a statement here tonight.

He said the air ambulance was piloted by Deputy Fire Superintendent II Mohd Hasrizal Kamaruzzaman and assistant pilot Senior Assistant Fire Superintendent Safri Rambli from JBPM’s Subang Air Base.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency

— A total of 41 premises were ordered shut under Ops Patuh in 11 Kuala Lumpur parliamentary constituencies from Oct 1 to 15, according to Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL).

DBKL said the closures were made following checks at 419 premises and companies involved in entertainment activities, restaurants, clothes or tailoring stores, grocery shops, barbers, general goods stores and other activities that have been operating during the National Recovery Plan (PPN).

“Three compound notices were issued under the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988 for various offences by individuals/premise owners/companies that violated the PPN’s standard operating procedures set by the National Security Council,” DBKL posted on its official Facebook account today.

In addition, DBKL sealed an entertainment centre under Section 17 of the Entertainment (Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur) Act 1992 and 40 other premises under Section 101(1)(v), of the Local Government Act 1976 as they were being conducted by foreigners without approval.

Also, 27 Bangladeshi, 12 Pakistani, six Indians and 14 Indonesians (operators and premise workers) were temporarily detained in the operation for documentation purposes and further action by related agencies.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency

— Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob today expressed his appreciation to the Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM) for its role in enforcing the law and ensuring that the COVID-19 chain in the country is broken.

In a post on Facebook tonight, he said at a time when the world, Malaysia included, was battling the COVID-19 pandemic, the role played by the police force had become increasingly challenging.

“My highest appreciation goes out to the police force for not only being responsible for enforcing the law but also in ensuring efforts are taken to break the COVID-19 chain through roadblocks and standard operating procedure compliance taskforces,” he said.

He also commended the police force for the efforts taken, along with the Malaysian Armed Forces, in controlling the country’s borders through Ops Benteng from being encroached by illegals who may bring along the COVID-19 virus with them.

Meanwhile, Ismail Sabri also thanked the Home Ministry and Inspector-General of Police Datuk Seri Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani for raising the grade of the Bera district police headquarters from Grade C to Grade B.

“With the new grade, the number of police personnel can now be increased from 300 personnel to 400-600. Continue to provide excellent service for the safety and well-being of Keluaga Malaysia (Malaysian Family) Bera whom we care about,” he said.

The prime minister also congratulated Bera district police chief Supt Mansor Samsudin and his deputy DSP N. Kumaran over their promotions.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 18 — Experts have thrown their support behind the government’s move to wait for the results of studies and obtain adequate data on the effectiveness and safety of the COVID-19 vaccine for children under 12 before deciding to inoculate the group, describing it as a wise decision.

Malaysian Doctors Club (MDC) founder, Dr Muhammad Hakim Nordin said Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin’s move not to make a hasty decision on the matter was also practical.

“…they (children) are a low-risk group…then why should we subject the children to something (vaccination) that we are still not sure whether it is safe and effective.

“As far as I know, the WHO (World Health Organisation) has yet to recommend vaccination for children under 12,” he told Bernama.

Dr Muhammad Hakim said although some vaccine producers had confirmed the safety and effectiveness of their products, it was up to the WHO to determine whether the vaccines were safe for children under 12.

Khairy had previously said that talks were being held with a vaccine producer to procure COVID-19 vaccine for kids below 12 years old. The firm is preparing to send relevant data to every governing body worldwide including to Malaysia.

Meanwhile, Tuanku Muhriz Chancellor’s Hospital senior clinical lecturer and consultant paediatric immunologist, Dr Adli Ali said he believed the government was in the midst of evaluating several types of vaccines to be administered to the group.

He said having adequate data would increase parents’ confidence to allow their children to be vaccinated.

“I believe that they (the government) have also taken into account some data (from various vaccine producers) including Sinovac which has released data saying that the vaccine is safe for children aged 6 to 12,” he said.

Meanwhile, clinical microbiologist specialist from Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (Usim), Assoc Prof Dr Nurul Azmawati Mohamed said deciding whether or not to vaccinate children under 12 was no easy task.

She said although clinical trials have shown that the vaccine is safe and effective for children abroad, the test report should be reviewed by experts from the WHO as well as the Health Ministry.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency

TAMPIN, Oct 18 — The Ministry of Education (MOE) is discussing with the Ministry of Health (MOH) on the vaccination rate of Form Five students to enable them to attend school without rotation.

Education Minister Datuk Dr Radzi Jidin said it was following the increase in the vaccination rate of Form Five students which saw 371,696 of them or 97 per cent have received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 57.9 per cent (142,655 students) have completed the vaccination.

“Students have started returning to school and the standard operating procedures have been implemented well, however, we may consider for some groups of students (to attend physical classes) on a non-rotational basis.

“Maybe we can start with Form Five students as implemented for students (who would be sitting for) the Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia (STPM) STPM examination,” he told reporters after visiting Sekolah Kebangsaan Tengku Zainun, Tampin, here, today.

Meanwhile, Radzi said a total of 339,951 students were allowed to attend physical classes in the states that have moved into Phase Four of the National Recovery Plan (PPN), namely Negeri Sembilan, Labuan and Langkawi, beginning yesterday and today.

The MOE had previously announced that schools in states that have Phase Four of the PPN will be reopened involving Level 1 (Year 1, 2 and 3) primary school students, as well as Form Three and Form Four students in secondary schools on Nov 1.

Attendance for Level 2 (Year 4, 5 and 6) primary school students, as well as those in remove classes, Form One and Form Two for secondary school students will begin on Nov 8.

In the meantime, Radzi said the implementation of the implementation of the rotational face-to-face classes and home based teaching and learning (PdPR) session was running smoothly and so far.

He said through PdPR, teachers would inform students about the preparations that needed to be done before attending their the face-to-face classes the following week.

“When students come to school the following week, teachers will look at which topic their students failed to understand during the PdPR session and help them with that,” he said.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 18 — A total of 21,960,911 individuals or 93.8 per cent of the adult population in Malaysia have completed their COVID-19 vaccination as of yesterday.

Based on the Health Ministry’s data on the COVIDNOW portal, 97.2 per cent of the adult population, or 22,745,310 individuals, have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

A total of 134,180 doses of the vaccine were dispensed yesterday, involving both the adult and the adolescent populations.

This brings the total number of doses administered under the National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) which was launched on Feb 24 to 47,838,886.

Meanwhile, a total of 2,662 booster doses were administered to the target group yesterday, taking the total number of booster doses given to 21,477.

As for teenagers aged 12 to 17 years, 25.6 per cent or 806,330 individuals have completed their vaccination while 78.2 per cent or 2,463,207 others have received at least the first dose of the vaccine since the PICK programme for the adolescent group was launched on Sept 8.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency

MELAKA, Oct 18 — The Election Commission (EC) has set Nov 20 as polling day for the Melaka state election.

Nomination day is Nov 8 and early polling will be held on Nov 16.

This was announced by EC chairman Datuk Abdul Ghani Salleh at a press conference after chairing a special EC meeting on the Melaka state election here today.

The Melaka State Legislative Assembly has 28 seats.

Abdul Ghani said EC has appointed 28 returning officers and 80 assistant returning officers for the state election.

“For the purpose of monitoring campaign activities throughout the election campaign period, EC has set up 28 election task forces comprising representatives of the Royal Malaysia Police, local authorities and agents of candidates,” he said.

He said the roll comprises 482,550 regular voters, 10,191 military personnel and their spouses, 2,349 police personnel and 106 absent voters who are overseas.

Asked on the standard operating procedure (SOP) for the polls, Abdul Ghani said voters were encouraged to cast their ballots according to recommended time slots to prevent too many people from gathering at polling stations.

“We will issue the proposed times for voting through our system just like the MySejahtera application. Voters should avoid going out all together in the morning. If possible, let senior citizens vote in the morning and the younger people in the afternoon.

“We have strict SOP at polling centres; Conditions on vaccination, wearing of face masks, practising physical distancing and the like,” he added.

He said the guidelines to prevent the spread of COVID-19 would be based on the recommendations and advice of the National Security Council, Health Ministry and police.

The Melaka state assembly was dissolved on Oct 4 after four representatives withdrew their support for the leadership of Chief Minister Datuk Seri Sulaiman Md Ali.

The four former assemblymen are Datuk Seri Idris Haron (BN-Sungai Udang), Datuk Nor Azman Hassan (BN-Pantai Kundor), Datuk Norhizam Hassan Baktee (Independent-Pengkalan Batu) and Datuk Noor Effandi Ahmad (Bersatu-Telok Mas).

Source: BERNAMA News Agency