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IPOH, March 17 — Perak is confident of vaccinating all state residents by the end of this year including the Orang Asli community in rural areas in every district.
Mentri Besar Datuk Saarani Mohamad said the state government will be preparing mobile vaccination centres (PPV) specifically to vaccinate the Orang Asli.
“For those Orang Asli situated near the town such as Tapah and Kampar is reachable, but difficult to reach those in rural areas such as the Orang Asli settlements in Hulu Perak.
“And we might not be able to bring them out. Therefore, we will prepare the mobile PPV for this purpose,” he told a press conference after officiating the woman and public development secretariat logo launching ceremony at the State Secretariat Building here.
Saarani said that Perak is among the states that made early preparations for the vaccination programme.
“The Sultan of Perak, Sultan Nazrin Muizzuddin Shah, came down personally to check the preparation at the vaccination centre in Stadium Indera Mulia.
“We have also done the preparation for the second phase of the vaccination. The first phase is for the frontliners. For the Kinta district, the frontliners will be vaccinated at this PPV or other designated health clinics.
“In the other districts, the frontliners will take their vaccination at their respective health centres,” he said.
However, Saarani said the existing PPVs and health centres will not be sufficient to vaccinate all the people in the second phase as it involves a large number.
“The health centres will have their own business to conduct and we can’t disturb them.
“Therefore, we have instructed each district to identify their own PPVs with the condition that it should have proper facilities such as air conditioners. The district offices informed us that they chose to have multi-purpose halls and several other buildings,” he said.
Saarani said the state has managed to identify 31 PPVs across the state so far.
He said Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin, during his working visit to the PPV here yesterday, was told that it will take up until May 2022 to complete the vaccination with the 31 PPVs.
However, he said Khairy responded to say this was not acceptable.
“We have been told to add more PPVs and we don’t have any problem with that. We can get cooperation from higher institutions and boarding schools in the states. In Ipoh alone we have Ungku Omar Polytechnic, Ipoh Teacher’s College and a few others,” he said.
Saarani also said another method that can be put into place to expedite the vaccination process is by extending the time for the vaccination.
“At the moment the vaccination time is from 9am to 9pm. If there is necessary we can extend it until 12am. However, it depends on the availability of the Health Ministry staff,” he explained.