ROMPIN – After months without tourists, Tioman Island residents here, today, were visited by 50 personnel from the Rompin Health Office who brought along with them a ‘gift’ comprising 1,700 doses of COVID-19 vaccine.
Rompin district vaccination coordinator Dr R. Monysyha Atri said all the staff involved would be assigned to six vaccine administering centres (PPV) on the island, namely, at Kampung Tekek, Kampung Salang, Kampung Mukut, Kampung Paya, Kampung Genting and Kampung Juara.
“The staff involved were brought to Tioman Island by ferry while the Sinovac vaccine was flown from Rompin Hospital by the Malaysian Fire and Rescue Department’s helicopter to maintain the vaccine’s storage temperature.
“This is because a trip by sea takes two hours from the Teluk Gading jetty on the mainland to the island and definitely we do not want to take any risks with the amount of vaccine carried,” she told Bernama when met at Kampung Tekek, today.
Present were state Human Resource, Sports and Non-governmental Organisation (NGO) Committee chairman Datuk Seri Mohd Johari Hussain, who is also Tioman assemblyman, Rompin district officer Ahmad Nasim Mohd Sidek and Pahang National Security Council director Mohd Zairasyahli Shah Zakaria.
Dr Monysyha said the staff would straight away go to the houses of those vaccine recipients who faced constraints to go to the PPV due to health or old age factor.
Meanwhile, Ahmad Nasim said the first phase of the vaccination exercise on the island would be for six days from tomorrow (Monday) involving 1,700 individuals out of the total of 3,500 residents, with priority given to the high-risk group.
“We specially hired a ferry to bring the health personnel as the passenger ferries are not operating at the moment, while the vaccination process needs to be expedited before the monsoon season arrives, during which it will not be safe for sea transportation.
“Besides the logistical challenges, we also had to consider the poor Internet coverage here. If the coverage is weak, the vaccination registration must be carried out manually, before the recipients’ MySejahtera data are updated on the mainland,” he said.
“Hopefully, vaccination of the residents could ease their minds and provide protection to them, as well as tourists who choose the island as a holiday destination when the tourism sector is allowed to operate again,”: he said.
Kampung Tekek head, Zurkarnaini A.Hamid said the news of the vaccine arrival became the topic of conversation among the villagers over the last two weeks, with the majority of them wanting to be vaccinated soonest possible, considering the COVID-19 outbreak at one of the villages there before.
“Besides by word of mouth, we also shared via our WhatsApp groups, information from the authorities on the importance of taking the vaccine so that those who were still in doubt could change their minds.
“This is a chance for us to receive the vaccine and we do not want anyone to miss it…it’s not easy for the health personnel to come here as it requires detailed planning and it is costly,” he added.
