The Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development wants youths aged 12 to 17 to be vaccinated before or when school starts.
The Minister, Datuk Seri Rina Mohd. Harun said her party has also sought the cooperation of the Ministry of Education Malaysia (MOE) to ensure the matter.
According to her, her party had previously urged the government to consider vaccination of school students as a measure to prevent COVID-19 transmission.
“If we look at what was announced, these children will be given (vaccines) in stages after getting advice from experts.
“The COVID-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF) will decide for these children and we hope they will be vaccinated after the adults have completed theirs,” she said.
She told reporters after reviewing the implementation of the Outsourcing Pilot Project (ASD) at Rumah Seri Kenangan Seri Iskandar.
Earlier, various parties urged MOE to consider opening schools in stages starting next month due to the high daily COVID-19 cases.
They voiced concern about the safety of students as the group did not receive the vaccine in addition to the possibility of the existence of school clusters.
Commenting further, Rina said that giving vaccines to these children can create a safe community among school students.
“If we look at the teenagers aged 12 to 17, they are those who are in school, thus it’s a collaboration with MOE.
“If they want to reopen schools, we hope these children can be vaccinated before or when the schools open,” she said.
Rosli Mansor
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