PUTRAJAYA, Oct 9 -- A total of 115,516 individuals or about 67 per cent of the 172,155 Orang Asli who are eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine have been inoculated, Rural Development Minister Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid said today.
He said the rest of them were still waiting for the opportunity to be vaccinated, and not because they were rejecting the vaccine.
“It is hard to reach them (Orang Asli) due to their remote dwellings. But, we will continue with the outreach programme to vaccinate all of them,” he told reporters after participating in the National Sports Day celebration at the ministry here today.
He said the ministry was striving to ensure that the remaining 56,639 Orang Asli who are eligible for vaccination would get their vaccine shots as soon as possible.
Among the efforts carried out under the outreach programme was to modify express buses of MARA Liner Sdn Bhd into mobile vaccination centres to travel to Orang Asli villages in Perak, Pahang and Kelantan, he said.
Mahdzir added that the use of the single-dose CanSino vaccine would speed up the vaccination rate of the Orang Asli community.
To date, about 10 per cent of Orang Asli who have been inoculated received the CanSino vaccine.
-- BERNAMA
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