GEORGE TOWN, Sept 3 ― A total of 188 Penang Island City Council (MBPP) workers have contracted Covid-19 as of today including 30 per cent who were fully vaccinated, the Mayor Datuk Yew Tung Seang revealed today.

He said the infection of 56 workers who have received their full two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine highlighted the importance of maintaining measures to reduce the risk of contracting the coronavirus.

"So, being fully vaccinated doesn't mean we can't be infected, which is why we want the public to be responsible for themselves and for the community,” he said during a joint press conference with state exco Jagdeep Singh Deo at the Batu Lanchang Market this morning.

The Batu Lanchang market was ordered to close temporarily again today after four Covid-19 cases were detected among the traders.

Yew said the city council did not want to keep closing public markets due to infections, when urging individuals to be more responsible in adhering to strict Covid-19 SOPs.

He said vaccination efforts must still continue, especially for hawkers and traders in the island, to create herd immunity among the local communities.

He said the mobile Covid-19 mass vaccination programme for hawkers and small traders have completed and all of the vaccine doses supplied were fully used up.

"We feel it is not enough so we hope the Local Government and Housing Ministry and the state government will assist to introduce phase two of the programme by supplying more vaccines so that we can get more hawkers and traders vaccinated,” he said.

He agreed with Jagdeep's proposal that the price of the Covid-19 rapid antigen self-test kits be reduced further from the ceiling price of RM16 for wholesale and RM19.90 for retail.

"RM16 is still too high for the general public to purchase, we hope the federal government can reduce the price further so that it is more affordable for everyone,” he said.

He said with more people vaccinated and affordable self-test kits, there can be a "green bubble” community in future when the country enters the endemic phase.

"We can have a green bubble community of vaccinated people with negative tests who are allowed to travel and conduct various activities,” he said.