Dennis Ngau
MIRI (Sept 4): The majority in Penans in Telang Usan have been vaccinated but there are still a few who have not due to factors such as hesitancy in getting the vaccine or unable to come down to the vaccination centres.
There are still about 3,000 eligible Penans from a population of about 16,000 who have yet to be vaccinated, said Telang Usan assemblyman Dennis Ngau.
“We still have a long way to go but there is improvement to vaccination acceptance now compared to previously,” he said yesterday.
He said the Penans were initially spooked by the alleged first few Covid-19 deaths and stories of people being sent to quarantine centres in far away Miri City.
“Persistent efforts of grassroots and religious leaders have helped to convince many of them to be vaccinated,” Dennis said.
They overcame their fear after many families in their midst were infected in just a few weeks, and the death of three Penan women from Long Luteng, Long Sait (but working at Kejin camp) and Long Iman in Mulu.
Clusters among the Penans such as in Long Kevok, Long Latie and Layun detected by the Ministry Health forced the villages to be locked down to control the spread while the villagers were sent to quarantine centres in Miri.
Dennis hoped the un-vaccinated group, due to logistics and vaccine hesitancy, would soon be inoculated.
He said he would be going to Long Livok today to address vaccine hesitancy after similar visits to Long Belok and Long Pakan earlier, which have yielded positive results.
“More are accepting the vaccine as the only protection against Covid-19 and its variants,” he said.
from Borneo Post Online https://bit.ly/3DIMtF8
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