DCM: Better system needed to ensure all eligible rural folk get vaccinated

Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas. – Photo by Chimon Upon

KUCHING (Apr 24): The Sarawak government strives to come up with a more viable system in reaching out to the rural folk and engaging them in the Covid-19 vaccination programme.

In stating this, Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas said the State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) would propose this in view of the difficulty in reaching out to those living in the remote pockets across Sarawak due to severe lack of communication and telecommunication systems.

The call was made following the incident where 72 people in Sibu and 80 people in Kapit did not turn up for the vaccination drive, and could not be contacted.

“The situation in Sarawak is quite tough. As we move into the interior areas, the problem would become more serious.

“We are going to propose to the federal government, after looking at the situation today (yesterday) and the hitch where 72 people in Sibu did not come for the vaccination and could not be contacted,” said Uggah, who is also SDMC chairman, at a press conference, held after his visit to the vaccination drive at Sarawak Indoor Stadium in Petra Jaya here yesterday.

“We encountered a number of problems – some elderly folk did not check their handphones (for MySejahtera notification) and did not know about the appointment date (and had subsequently missed it).”

“Some had different addresses on their MyKad, but were residing elsewhere; and there were those who did not have mobile phones.”

Uggah pointed out that the state government had received 600,000 manual registrations for the vaccination programme, of which the data must be keyed into the MySejahtera system, which triggered some complications as those without phone numbers were rejected.

In this regard, he suggested that these individuals would register using the phone numbers of their respective Resident’s Offices, as upon the confirmation of the vaccination’s appointment dates, the officers there should be able to contact the vaccine recipients.

“If this were to be allowed, then the lists of names and addresses could be forwarded to the District Offices, and they would be responsible to inform the rural folk on their appointment,” said Uggah.

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