KUALA LUMPUR: Life for anti-vaccine groups and individuals in the country will be hard in days to come.
Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin who issued the warning today said while the government would not likely to issue a federal mandate to make vaccination compulsory, it would not make it any easier for vaccine deniers.
"Sorry to say, we will continue to make life very difficult for you if you are not vaccinated because you choose not to," he said.
"If you cannot be vaccinated on health grounds, that's fine and we will give (digital) exemption through MySejahtera. But if you don't vaccinate yourself by choice, we will continue to make life difficult for you."
"You cannot dine in restaurants, you cannot go into shopping centres," he said after opening the 11th National Acute Myocardial Infarction Course by the Serdang Hospital, here on Saturday.
Khairy also said he would be releasing the national testing strategy next week, where a mandate for unvaccinated people to pay for their weekly self-test, would be mapped out.
"If you choose not to vaccinate yourself, then we will probably have to ask you to do regular tests that you have to pay for."
"The message is to get yourself vaccinated," he said.
On Friday, Khairy called on the police and MCMC (Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission) to speed up investigations and prosecutions against anti-vaccination groups.
He said the ministry had lodged several police reports against these groups, but they were still at large and continues to persist in spreading fake news and threatening to disrupt public health efforts.
Meanwhile, Khairy also said that those who need booster shots to travel to Saudi Arabia for umrah and other visits to other countries could start applying for their booster doses on MySejahtera now.
He said the doses were expected to be administered starting next month.
Saudi Arabia earlier announced that those inoculated with Sinovac can perform their umrah in the kingdom on condition that they get a third dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.
Khairy however said he was still speaking to nations such as the United Kingdom to allow those who received vaccines other than Pfizer dan AstraZeneca into the country without having to undergo quarantine.
"Rather than having to re-vaccinate Malaysians who want to go to the UK (to allow them not to be quarantined), we should treat all the vaccines equally -- at least those listed for emergency use under World Health Organization (WHO)."
Earlier in his opening speech, he said he was on a mission to push for automated external defibrillators (AED) to be equipped in building beyond a specific size.
He said he would discuss with the relevant ministries including state and local government on the matter as it involves the amendment of building by laws.
Khairy also said that he would bring the matter to Cabinet soon.
Without mentioning the targeted timeline for the approach, he said it would start with the government buildings and followed by other buildings.
"(AED) must be displayed and we need to train as many people as possible to be first responders, as 50 per cent of deaths involving heart attacks occur before patients get to the hospitals."