KUCHING: The Welfare, Community Welfare, Women, Family and Child Development Ministry has begun the vaccination of 121 homeless persons statewide.
Its minister Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah stated that Sarawak had taken the initiative to vaccinate these people so that no eligible person was left out.
“The modus operandi of giving them their vaccines differs from each division. In Miri, we group them together and place them in a temporary homeless shelter until they have completed their second dose.
“Meanwhile, in Kuching and Sibu, we implement the mobile vaccination services for them or bring them directly to the vaccination centres (PPVs). So far, we have brought five homeless people to the Stadium Perpaduan PPV in Kuching to be vaccinated ever since the programme commenced on Aug 5,” she said.
Fatimah said this during the homeless community vaccination programme for the Kuching division on Sunday (Aug 22) night at Majma Mall here.
She further said that 29 homeless people were located in Kuching; 28 in Sibu; 24 in Miri; 18 in Bintulu; nine in Kapit; eight in Sarikei; three in Serian and one each in Samarahan and Betong.
Fatimah said as of Aug 20, 72 percent of the 87 homeless people had received their first dose. Of the total, 28 were from Sibu division; 23 from Miri; 17 from Kuching; seven each from Sarikei and Kapit and three from Serian.
“Tonight, we will be looking for the remaining 12 in Kuching. If we fail to locate all 12 of them tonight, we will continue looking for them the following days until they all receive their vaccines,” she added.
Fatimah said four homeless or 3.4 percent had received their second vaccine dose; two were from Miri and one each from Samarahan and Betong
“After we have vaccinated the homeless in Kuching, we will move on to the Bintulu division to vaccinate the homeless there from Sept 3 until Sept 5.
“We actually prefer giving them the single dose vaccine, CanSino, as these homeless tend to move around and it might be hard to locate them but the vaccine is not available at the moment.
“Hence, we opt to give them the Sinovac vaccine instead and rely on the necessary data gathered on their whereabouts for their second dosage,” she explained.
Among the challenges faced during this programme, she said, was the absence of identification and medical records that were needed to assess the vaccination status of the homeless.
“That is why we can only rely on the data gathered from conversing with them,” she added.
Fatimah also explained that for the vaccination programme, her ministry collaborated with nine other agencies, namely, the Resident Office, the Divisional Welfare Department; the State Health Department; Local Authorities; Royal Malaysian Police; the State National Anti-Drug Agency (AADK); Sarawak Immigration Department; Bomba and the National Registration Department.
