The Malaysian government is making a tough decision against those who refuse to get vaccinated against Coronavirus without a strong valid reason.
Giving a warning to those who deny taking Covid-19 shots, the country's Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said that the government will "continue to make life difficult."
''We will make life very difficult for you if you're not vaccinated because you choose not to,'' the Health Minister said.
This, however, would not apply to those who have a valid medical reason for not taking the jab, he added.
''If you cannot be vaccinated, that's fine. We will give you a MySejahtera digital exemption. But if you don't vaccinate yourself by choice, we will continue to make life difficult for you," said Khairy.
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A new plan under the country's National Testing Strategy will be introduced by the Health Minister to explain the measures that the government will adopt against the unvaccinated.
Without giving music details on the upcoming rules, Jamaluddin stated that those Malaysians who choose to not get inoculated may have to pay for regular mandatory Covid-19 tests.
“You cannot dine in at restaurants, you cannot go into shopping centres,'' his statement said, adding that in the new rules unvaccinated individuals will have to go through a paid weekly self-test.
''If you choose not to vaccinate yourself then we will probably ask you to do regular tests that you have to pay for. The message is to get yourself vaccinated,'' he said.
Though Covid-19 vaccination is not compulsory in Malaysia, people who have not been vaccinated will lose many privileges, like imposing restrictions for praying at mosques, dining out or visiting shopping centres.
Sectoral mandates may be imposed where it will become mandatory for teachers, civil servants and even private-sector office workers to get vaccinated for Covid.
The health minister further said the Malaysian government has explained and will continue to emphasise the effectiveness of vaccines.
“I am sorry that I have to be firm on this issue,” he added.
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Malaysia will soon start inviting applications for those who need a particular booster shot to travel to another country.
As per Malaysia's official COVIDNOW data, about 70.2 per cent of the adult population is fully vaccinated, whereas 77.3% have been administered with at least one shot of the Covid-19 vaccine.
A total of 2,390,687 Coronavirus cases and 27,921 deaths has been recorded in Malaysia since the beginning of the pandemic.