Vaccine registration in Perak still low

By Zahratulhayat Mat Arif - March 22, 2021 @ 11:41am

IPOH: Registration for the Covid-19 vaccination in Perak remains low at only 21.1 per cent as of yesterday, Perak Menteri Besar said.

Datuk Saarani Mohamad said there were 406,380 people in the state who have registered for the vaccines, as of yesterday, but the figure was still considered low.

As such, he said the state government would appoint and deploy volunteers to encourage people to register for the vaccine immediately.

"We have discussed this matter with Dr Ding (Health Perak director, Datuk Dr Ding Lay Ming) and exco members that we need to double efforts to promote the Covid-19 Registration Campaign.

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE

• Manual registration available for Covid-19 vaccination drive

• Registration for Covid-19 vaccination to begin next month

• Pahang launches system facilitating vaccination registration for state residents

• Covid-19 vaccines arrive in Perak [NSTTV]

"We can do that at mall entrances, night markets, state assemblymen service centres, in fact even at football fields. We want more people to register for the Covid-19 vaccine," he said.

Saarani told reporters this after receiving his second dose of the Covid-19 vaccine at the Indera Mulia Stadium vaccination centre (PPV) here, today.

Asked on the reason behind the low number of registration, he said the state government did not conduct any specific research on that but he believed most of these people adopted a 'wait and see' approach.

"We didn't have any specific research conducted to find the reason behind this but I believe there are many people out there adopting a 'wait and see' approach.

"Though Prime Minister (Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin) was the first person to receive the vaccine in the country, and me, who became the first person in Perak to get vaccinated, there are still many people who prefer to wait and see.

"My advice is, don't wait and see, go register yourself immediately and wait for your turn to be called," he said.

On Covid-19 awareness among the Orang Asli community in Perak, Saarani said he had discussed the matter with the Orang Asli Development Department (Jakoa) to help them register.

"As we know some areas in the Orang Asli community have no internet access.

"We had discussed the matter with Jakoa last week and the registration will be done manually," he said.

He added that he hoped more people would register themselves for the Covid-19 vaccine so the people and life could can return to normal.