KUCHING, June 8 — Ministry of Health (MoH) personnel began inoculating rural residents in Kapit against Covid-19 when they turned up at the vaccination centre without prior registration yesterday, Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr James Masing said today.
“The staff of the Resident’s Office of Kapit Division, on their own initiative, also brought in the rural dwellers to see the MoH staff even though their names were not on the list of people to be vaccinated,” he said when responding to the state government’s approach announced by Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Openg yesterday.
Masing, who is also the state assemblyman for the Kapit Division, said the approach is the most practical solution to expedite the process of mass vaccination.
He said “injection first, registration later” is the correct approach if all Sarawakians aged 18 and above are to be vaccinated within the scheduled time frame.
“If we only vaccinate people who have registered their names through the MySejahtera app, then the rural population will never get vaccinated in time,” he said, explaining that internet accessibility is almost non-existent in remote longhouses and villages.
“Besides, not everyone in rural areas has a handphone,” he added.
Masing said the use of the MySejahtera approach only favours those in urban areas.
He said the relevant agencies should have followed through with the suggestion first mooted by the chief minister once the Covid-19 vaccines had been developed.
“All sorts of red tape and the movement control order’s standard operating procedures (MCO SOPs) have created unnecessary obstacles to the fight against the spread of Covid-19 and have resulted in unnecessary loss of life,” Masing said.
The chief minister announced yesterday that rural dwellers would receive their Covid-19 jab even if they visited a vaccination centre without prior registration.
He said their particulars would be taken down at the centres and entered into the main database to record that they have been vaccinated.
“This is some adjustment we have made because not all rural dwellers are able to register for the vaccination for many reasons,” he told reporters after visiting the vaccination centre at Borneo Convention Centre Kuching (BCCK) here.
He said the state government did not want to see rural dwellers heading to vaccination centres to register, only to have to return again for an appointment at a later date.
Abang Johari added that he had directed all Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) assemblymen and members of Parliament to bring unregistered rural residents to the centres to expedite the process.
