SHAH ALAM, Aug 27 — About 4,000 adult Orang Asli in Selangor have yet to receive Covid-19 vaccinations, says State Tourism, Environment, Green Technology and Orang Asli Affairs Committee chairman Hee Loy Sian.

“Some among the Orang Asli are afraid and don’t believe (in the vaccines). We are still looking for them and are in the effort to carry out the inoculations at the Orang Asli Hospital in Gombak, with the cooperation of the District Health Department and the Department of Orang Asli Development (Jakoa),” he said when winding up the question and answer session at the Selangor State Assembly sitting here, today.

He said as of August 22, 67.12 per cent (9,633 individuals) of the adult Orang Asli population in the state had received their first vaccine dose, and of the total, 6,818 individuals had completed two doses.

Hee was answering a question from Lim Yi Wei (PH-Kampung Tunku) on the rate of Covid-19 infection and vaccination among the Orang Asli in the state.

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According to Hee, as of August 22, 613 of the 20,737 Orang Asli in Selangor had been reportedly infected with Covid-19.

In the meantime, Hee said as of March this year, 10 hotels in the state had fully shut down, while 38 hotels were temporarily closed due to the impact of Covid-19, especially during the enforcement of the movement control order (MCO).

Hee said in a report received from the Malaysian Association of Hotels’ (MAH) Selangor Chapter, 1,032 hotel industry workers in the state were also impacted in terms of income, whereby 60 per cent of them had lost their jobs and 40 per cent were either given no pay leave or had their salaries cut by 20 to 50 per cent.

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He said this in reply to Juwairiya Zulkifli (PH-Bukit Melawati), who inquired about the impact of Covid-19 on the tourism and hotel industries, and the number of workers who were terminated following the closure of hotels due to the pandemic

The assembly sitting resumes at 10am, August 30. — Bernama