Pagi tadi saya telah merasmikan The 25th Joint Malaysia-Singapore Nursing Conference 2022 di Johor Bahru. Banyak perkara yang dikongsikan bersama antara kedua-dua negara dan persidangan kali ini juga telah menyaksikan penyertaan para jururawat dari Myanmar dan Indonesia. Memandangkan para jururawat kita telah bertungkus lumus menabur bakti memerangi COVID-19, saya antaranya telah mengumumkan:

a) Tawaran kenaikan pangkat ke Gred U42 buat 110 jururawat dengan ijazah sarjana muda kejururawatan pada Oktober depan.

Persidangan Kemuncak Dasar Kesihatan 2022 atau Health Policy Summit 2022: The Future of Our Healthcare - Health White Paper Development bermula hari ini. Persidangan ini melibatkan nama-nama terkenal dan berpengalaman dalam sistem kesihatan di dalam dan luar Malaysia. #HWP In discussing on the way forward for our healthcare system, we will be taking a step closer towards securing much needed systemic and structural reforms to future-proof our health system, reforms that are long overdue. #HWP

More than a month ago, I said that we expect Omicron to become dominant here as it has elsewhere, and that when it did, cases would rise. That's why we sped up our booster program.

We are now seeing the predicted quick rise in cases. However, there is no need to panic. 1/4 There is strong indication of a decoupling between severe outcomes and cases. Our vaccination programmes - adults, adolescents, and soon children - are working well.

Hospital capacity utilisation remains under control, and we are prepared to deal with a surge. 2/4

As we roll out our PICK Booster programme, some have asked about the policy of mixing vaccines. Many countries are giving these heterologous booster shots. Our expert committee under @drkalai61 has recommended to @JKJAVMY to proceed with the heterologous vaccinations. For Pfizer recipients you will be recommended a homologous booster i.e. a Pfizer 3rd dose after 6 months of your 2nd dose. For Sinovac recipients, you will be recommended a Pfizer booster 3 months after your 2nd dose. We are now starting with frontliners and older folks.

As previously announced, @JKJAVMY is offering an opt-in choice for people who want to take the AstraZeneca vaccine. Bookings will be open tomorrow, 2 May 1200hrs at vaksincovid.gov.my You already need to be registered & will simply just need to pick a PPV & date. Once you have picked a PPV and date, you will be notified of your vaccination time on MySJ or via sms. The PPVs designated for AZ are: UM, UKM, World Trade Centre KL and IDCC Shah Alam.

1/ What does this announcement mean for our vaccine supply? (Thread)

Today the Drug Control Authority has given conditional registration to several COVID-19 vaccines after evaluation by NPRA.

https://twitter.com/dghisham/status/1366694059880968194

2/ The vaccines are:
i) AstraZeneca manufactured by Medimmune Pharma in Netherlands;
ii) Coronavac manufactured by Sinovac in China,
iii) COMIRNATY (Pfizer) manufactured by BioNTech in Germany.

PM ⁦@MuhyiddinYassin⁩ has just announced our first COVID-19 vaccine deal.

Gov't inks deal with Pfizer to vaccinate 6.4 million Malaysians nst.com.my/news/nation/20… With the COVAX facility & Pfizer deal we now have doses for 30% of our population. @DrAdhamBaba and I are working hard to close further deals to secure doses up to 70% of our population (preliminary target for herd immunity).

Dengan pelaksanaan PKPB, sangat penting kita mempunyai kebolehan untuk melaksanakan pengesahan kontak rapat & contact tracing. MyTrace dibangunkan untuk melaksanakan pengesahan kontak rapat melalui teknologi Bluetooth. Data kontak rapat disimpan dalam telefon pengguna selama 21 hari secara anonymised. Data geo-lokasi tidak dikesan atau dikumpul. Jika ada kes positif, KKM akan hubungi semua kontak rapat dari data MyTrace dalam telefon pengguna tersebut.

Pakej Rangsangan Ekonomi Rakyat (PRIHATIN) merupakan usaha kerajaan untuk melindungi rakyat & menyokong para peniaga & pekerja yang menjadi tulang belakang ekonomi rakyat. Nilai pakej ini adalah RM250bn (17% drpd KDNK) berbanding RM67bn yang diumum untuk menangani krisis kewangan pada tahun 2009.

: @MOFmalaysia has announced its B40 health coverage scheme will come into affect 1 Jan. Recipients will be covered up to RM8k for 36 types of critical illnesses. The fund to pay for this scheme will begin at RM2bn. I debated this matter in Parliament. Specifically I wanted to find out how the government was paying for this. Would the government be paying certain insurers the premium for the B40 recipients? Turns out the initial RM2bn is a quid pro quo arrangement with Great Eastern, a Singaporean insurer.

A serious allegation was made against the previous government yesterday in Parliament regarding unpaid GST input tax claims. Minister of Finance said RM19bn was misappropriated and therefore not paid back to businesses who had made claims on their input tax.

https://twitter.com/theedgemarkets/status/1027357687971864576

I made two points. 1) I asked of the RM19bn unpaid input tax claims, how many were because of non compliance with GST regulations, how many the subject of ongoing customs audits and how many unpaid because of “misappropriation”? We have to be clear about the details.

UMNO sekarang berada di persimpangan jalan untuk memilih samada mengambil haluan kanan atau tengah. Ke kanan mungkin menang sorak sementara. Tetapi pasti lingkup 10-15 tahun lagi. Haluan tengah bukan mudah. Sukar difahami akar umbi. Tetapi itulah jalan yang ada untuk survive. Jika modal untuk PRU15 hanya dengan momokan orang Melayu dengan isu seperti pelantikan bukan Melayu sebagai AG, Ketua Hakim dll, lupakan sahaja impian menawan semula Putrajaya. Keresahan Melayu memang ada, tetapi perkara ini kecil berbanding isu ekonomi, sosial dll.