Govt drafting national recovery plan for Covid-19 battle, says Muhyiddin

Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin says the government is drafting a National Recovery Plan in preparation for the country to emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic at a reasonable point.

He said the plan, based on data and science and all the preparations that had been done, including in terms of Covid-19 management, the economy, and the vaccination programme, would be presented to the National Security Council (NSC) within the next week.

“Some of the key ministers involved have already sat down with me to present the draft. Basically good, but not yet refined.

“It is time we want to set an exit strategy or National Recovery Plan for us to get out of this problem, but this is a big challenge depending on the cooperation and support of all parties,” he said to reporters after visiting the mobile vaccination centre at the Sri Johor People’s Housing Project in Bandar Tun Razak, Kuala Lumpur.

He was accompanied by Federal Territories Minister Annuar Musa.

Muhyiddin said the plan was also to inform the people about current developments and the phases involving the management of Covid-19 in the country, among others.

“This we will evaluate. It (the plan) will have phase one, phase two… based on the data, for example if (in cases of) Covid-19, we see there are already signs of a decline, but it cannot be a time to celebrate because the phase has not been completed. If possible we want cases to go down further.

“This means we have to help the health ministry manage the healthcare to ensure that our healthcare system does not collapse… hospitals, bed facilities, ventilators, hospital staff must be enough. We are implementing all these,” he said.

He said the government is also considering setting a deadline for registration for Covid-19 vaccination.

However, he said the registration process is currently done openly, with no deadline set.

“Let’s say (we set) the end of July, so whoever hasn’t registered yet, please register. If there are any left we will help them to register so that everyone is already in our system and we can plan the next phases until the vaccination programme is completed throughout country,” he said.

Meanwhile, Muhyiddin said Kuala Lumpur is expected to achieve herd immunity earlier, in August.

He said this expectation was based on the opening of more vaccination centres (PPVs) including mega PPVs and mobile vaccination programmes that would enable many people in the federal territory to receive the jab.

Commenting on the mobile vaccination programme, Muhyiddin said the method was one of the ways to expedite the vaccination programme, adding that the government planned to add more mobile PPVs in certain areas.

The mobile vaccination pilot project which began on June 7 at the Kampung Muhibbah PPR is the outcome of a strategic collaboration between the federal territories ministry, health ministry, Kuala Lumpur City Hall and Yayasan Wilayah Persekutuan.

The programme is one of seven initiatives of the Wilayah Cakna 5.0 drive to ensure that 80% of residents of the federal capital are vaccinated by the end of August.