Sabah local leaders play important role in getting rural folk vaccinated

KOTA KINABALU, June 11 -- Local leaders, especially village heads and village committee members must play their part in raising awareness in Sabah’s rural areas on the importance of COVID-19 vaccination.

Sabah Social and Human Rights activists Datuk Patrick Sindu said this is also important due to the absence of internet access in rural areas for residents to register via the MySejahtera application or website, making it important for registrations to be carried out manually.

Besides that, he said, mosques and surau, churches, religious body committee members, as well as private clinics, are also encouraged to provide accurate information on the importance of vaccination. 

“Efforts to expand the vaccination exercise, particularly to residents in Sabah rural areas need to be scrutinised to achieve herd immunity. We have received vaccines (supply) but the process of administering the vaccines has yet to run smoothly,” he told Bernama, here, today.

Besides that he also suggested existing facilities at village clinics be fully utilised as vaccination centres (PPV), to expedite the vaccination programme.

“We hope the people, especially senior citizens, are not influenced by rumours spread by anti-vaccine groups through WhatsApp or gossip from people around them because that is also one of the factors why people are afraid to be vaccinated,” he said.

-- BERNAMA