PUTRAJAYA: Staff of the education ministry are believed to constitute the biggest group of civil servants who have yet to be vaccinated against Covid-19, according to the director-general of the Public Service Department, Mohd Khairul Adib Abd Rahman.
He did not give details. Khairul said the PSD is updating data of the civil servants who have not been vaccinated and this process is expected to be completed in two weeks’ time.
Currently, the PSD is matching the data of unvaccinated civil servants in the human resource management information system with that in the MySejahtera database in the health ministry.
“The data is being updated and the PSD will re-examine the reasons given by these civil servants for not wanting to be vaccinated. The reasons will be reviewed by each department head, so heads of department must go down to the field to understand the reasons given,” he said.
Official statistics show that more than 75% of Malaysia’s population has been fully vaccinated.
Last month, the PSD issued a circular mandating civil servants, including teachers, to be vaccinated before Nov 1.
On Nov 1, senior minister for education Radzi Jidin said school authorities were authorised to conduct checks immediately to determine if teachers possessed vaccination certificates.
Khairul said no disciplinary action had been taken yet against civil servants who refused vaccination.
“We understand that there are some who are concerned about getting vaccinated, and some of them do not want to be vaccinated because they are cancer patients, or have just given birth or have the Covid-19 infection. These groups will be given an exemption.” he said.
“Sometimes, department heads are forced to be firm to ensure services are not affected,” he added.-BERNAMA