SEMPORNA, June 14 — When the special health task force from the Semporna District Health Office distributed the COVID-19 vaccination registration forms to some 500 residents of Pulau Bum Bum recently, only 200 of them agreed to receive the vaccine.<\/p>\n
The rest of the villagers provided a negative answer, saying that they were afraid to be vaccinated.
\nBut the question is, why?
\nAccording to Nasir Abu Bakar, 49, head of Kampung Balimbang, one of the villages in Pulau Bum Bum, many villagers were exposed to negative information about\u00a0the COVID-19 vaccine, which allegedly could cause death, paralysis or stroke, either through hearsay or\u00a0social media.
\n\u201cThat is why when the Health Ministry (MOH) offers the vaccination, I volunteered to be inoculated first so that I can share my experience with others.
\nMy wife and our three children have also been vaccinated. Let us prove that the COVID-19 vaccine is safe and is the best way\u00a0to protect oneself from the virus,\u201d said Nasir who received the Sinovac vaccine last Tuesday.
\nIn the meantime, Nasir said he would continue to assist the MOH in providing explanations to\u00a0residents of Kampung Balimbang and he was also glad that some of them have begun to understand the benefits of the COVID-19 vaccine.
\n\u201cI managed to gather around 80 people who want to take the vaccine. If the mobile vaccination team can visit the village, it will reduce our travel cost,\u201d he said, adding that it would be best if the ministry could open up a vaccination centre in Pulau Bum Bum.
\nMeanwhile, for health personnel in Semporna, particularly the special health task force, they must continue\u00a0to convince the residents of Pulau Bum Bum and other 27 islands in the district to accept the vaccine until the immunisation campaign is\u00a0successful.
\nSemporna district health officer Dr Shameer Khan Sulaiman said the lukewarm response from the residents of Pulau Bum Bum would not affect the morale of health personnel; in fact, they would continue to work hard to\u00a0raise awareness among the people on the importance of vaccination.
\nDr Shameer explained that the current vaccination process was focused on the people of the mainland of Semporna and the approach to visit\u00a0and directly inoculate them had received an encouraging response, thus helping to build their confidence to take the vaccine.
\n\u201cFor instance, during the outreach programme in Kampung Bugaya, we managed to inoculate 300 residents in five hours and 60 per cent of them did not have the MySejahtera application,\u201d he said.
\nDr Shameer said the approach could also improve the registration rate as many of the residents still depended on the manual registration method.
\nSo far, about 10,000 people in Semporna have registered for vaccination but only 1,000 of them registered through the MySejahtera application.
\n\u201cPreviously when the ministry met with the Community Leader Development Unit, all village heads were briefed on the vaccination process and we provided them with registration forms to be filled in by the villagers. After that, we will register them and provide the vaccination date.
\n\u201cThere is a lot of work but without this effort, we cannot reach over 4,000 who have been vaccinated so\u00a0far,\u201d he said, adding that the District Health Office aimed to inoculate 120,000 to 140,000 Semporna residents under the immunisation programme.
\n— BERNAMA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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