SELAMA, July 26 — Due to a poor telecommunication system, manual registration for vaccination needs to be increased, especially for the rural population in Perak who find it difficult to register through the MySejahtera application.
The call was made by State Health, Science, Environment and Green Technology Committee (exco) chairman Mohd Akmal Kamarudin, who believes that the door-to-door community outreach programme can be conducted successfully in collaboration with district offices, the Perak Health Department (JKN) and Health Ministry.
“Some residents in rural areas (in Perak) have problems in terms of registration due to Internet access factors and limited access to mobile phones and transportation. It is not that they are rejecting the vaccines but they do not have access to register (for the vaccination).
“This manual registration exercise is done by distributing registration forms directly to the villagers. We will also go from house to house to ensure the people’s vaccine registration (process) and their welfare are guaranteed.
“We only take basic details such as names, addresses, telephone numbers and identity card numbers. We will register their information at their respective district offices through the MySejahtera application or refer directly to JKN (for the vaccination process),” he said.
Speaking to Bernama after the completion of the community outreach programme here, about 150km from Ipoh, recently, the state assemblyman for Selama said the initiative should be extended to all places in the state to get as many people as possible to register and get vaccinated.
In the programme, about 1,600 rural residents from seven villages around Selama were successfully registered within a day, among them involving Kampung Tapah, Penghulu Office, Sungai Rambutan, Sungai Kuning, Rantau Panjang, Tanjung Lengkong and Bukit Bertam.
Elaborating further, Mohd Akmal said registration included riding a motorcycle to gain access to the people as residents did not have good road access, also giving priority to the elderly and persons with disabilities to get vaccinated immediately.
“We also monitor the welfare of the people in the rural areas. We find some experiencing food supply issues so we channel necessities directly to those in need,” he said, adding that about 11,100 or 38.5% of the total population in Selama have registered for vaccination.
Meanwhile, a resident of Kampung Tanjung Lengkong, Abdul Malik Yahya, 48, was grateful that his 83-year-old mother Zainun Jaffar received a vaccination appointment on the same day of manual registration.
“I was surprised but happy when my mother received a call for her vaccine injection. We had previously registered my mother on the MySejahtera app but did not receive the appointment date even after the phase for the elderly and high-risk group had passed.
“Transportation is also provided to take us to the Selama vaccination centre. Such efforts should be continued to help the rural population register for vaccination,” he added.
Meanwhile, Jalil Majid, 54, a fellow resident, who suffers from a chronic illness, said he initially refused to register to get the vaccine.
“At first, I did not want to receive the vaccine because I have a chronic illness and was worried about the side effects. However, after receiving an explanation and being persuaded by the exco (Mohd Akmal) about the benefits of vaccination, I became interested in registering as a recipient,” he said.
To date, a total of 600,627 or 32 per cent of Perak residents have received the first dose of the vaccine, while 311,793 or 10.8 per cent have completed both doses.
