Dato Sri Lau Keung Chai
SIBU (June 13): The state government should provide mobile vaccination services to speed up the inoculation exercise in the rural areas, with priority given to those who need to cross districts for work, Sarawak Taekwondo Association (STA) deputy president Dato Sri Lau Keung Chai has suggested.
He said this would not only help expedite the vaccination rate but it can also be a source of revenue for the tourism industry players and the truck owners.
“The two-pronged strategy on the usage of mobile vaccine trucks can provide lots of flexibility to the rural people and it will definitely help speed up the vaccination rate and can also help the state to achieve its target of vaccinating 70 per cent of its population by August,” he said in a media statement.
According to the Ministry of Health’s (MoH) info graphics shared on Facebook, in Sarawak only a total of 128,648 individuals have received both doses of the vaccine as of June 10, just below six per cent of the state’s goal to vaccinate 2.2 million or 70 per cent of the population in Sarawak by August.
On June 7, the federal government strengthened its mass immunisation programme with the rollout of the first of the 40 vaccine trucks set to hit the highways in the coming months.
The government aims to deploy vaccination trucks to areas where people have difficulty to get to the immunisation centres.
Lau said the situation in Sarawak was even more acute compared to that in the Peninsula, with difficult accessibility to many rural places.
He said the mobile vaccine trucks could be stationed at certain localities where it is easier for people to reach.
“This will not only help reduce government expenses but also get more people to be vaccinated on a daily basis.”
Lau pointed out that most people in remote areas of Sarawak do not have access to the Internet services or have smart phones to register for vaccination.
“The mobile vaccine trucks can also help provide walk-in vaccination, hence saving all the difficulties and logistics in getting the rural people to register.”
He also suggested for the government to use tourist buses and covert them into mobile vaccine vehicles to provide walk-in vaccination for the people in the rural areas.
“This will help alleviate the suffering of the people, many of whom have been travelling more than 50km from the rural areas to the vaccination centres (PPVs) in Sibu for the vaccination,” he added.
He said the low vaccination rate was a cause of concern and with the number of Covid-19 positive cases continuing to show no signs of decreasing, vaccinating the people was the only option to help flatten the curve.
Commenting further, Lau also suggested that the Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF) come up with a proper planning to allow for walk-in vaccination without the need for people to make appointment, according to their age group.
“This will save lots of unnecessary time wasted through registration and also speed up the vaccination rate.”
On manpower shortage, he suggested that Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) rehire retired medical staff and medical students to help in the vaccination programme.