By Haruna Gimba
The Government of Malaysian has mandated police officers to get vaccinated against COVID-19 or leave the force, the country’s Inspector General of Police, Abdul Bador announced the mandate to the state news agency Bernama on Friday.
The IGP was responding to reports that some police officers said they would refuse to be vaccinated.
“Our source of reference is the Ministry of Health, not a shaman or any deviant scholar,” Bador said.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Health, Adham Baba said that Malaysia have administered about 250, 000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine since commencement of the vaccination in February.
The minister added that death toll related to the virus had risen to 1,203.
Health Reporters gathered that after a surge late last year in daily cases, Malaysia declared a state of emergency and imposed a second lockdown in January.
Although the lockdown has since been eased, penalties remained for breaching the government regulations on the pandemic.
Adham Baba said that 330 people had been fined the maximum 10,000 ringgit ($2,400) since the start of the second lockdown.
He added that a law announced on Thursday means the police can “take immediate action” against anyone accused of publishing ‘fake news’ about the pandemic and the government’s emergency rule.
