KUALA LUMPUR, June 1 — The number of persons with disabilities (OKUs) who registered for Covid-19 vaccination up to yesterday stood at 195,395 or 33.8 per cent of their total number at 577,352 nationwide.
Women, Family and Community Development Minister, Datuk Seri Rina Mohd Harun said as the number of disabled who have registered for vaccination was still low, advocacy and awareness would be increased through more cooperation with non-governmental organisations to assist the disabled to register.
“There are two issues, registration and administering the vaccine. I hope more of the disabled will register to receive the vaccine through this effort.
“Discussions are also being held on providing drive-through vaccination to the disabled. Alhamdulillah (praise be to Allah), the Malaysian Association for the Blind complex has been made a vaccine administering centre (PPV), which can help this group be vaccinated fast.”
Rina said this at a programme of handing out food baskets to her ministry’s target group at the Sri Sarawak People’s Housing Project (PPR), here, today.
Also present was OKU Sentral president, Senator Datuk Ras Adiba Radzi.
Rina said in speeding up the vaccination process for the public, the effort should not just be focused on the PPV but there should be parties going to the ground to help provide vaccination to those in need including the disabled.
“This will definitely benefit the disabled who have registered for vaccination as they don’t need to go far to receive the vaccine… we hope there will be more of such groups,” she added.
Yesterday, the coordinating minister for the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme, Khairy Jamaluddin said 30 vaccination trucks would be mobilised to the PPR areas and construction sites in the federal capital to accelerate the vaccination process.
At today’s programme which was a collaborative effort between the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry and Persatuan OKU Sentral, 500 food baskets were handed over to the association to be distributed to the disabled, especially from the B40 group who have been adversely impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.
— Bernama
