KOTA KINABALU: The Army's Combat Medic Vaccination Team (CMVT) will be heading back to Long Pasia to vaccinate more villagers there, says Defence Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob (pic).
He said that 227 of the 500 villagers there were vaccinated, as the rest did not come out to receive their shots.
“I urge rural people to go and get immunised when the CMVT programme reaches their place. There are anti-vaccine groups who are influencing villagers not to go out, but I hope villagers will not be influenced by them as this is for their own safety,” said Ismail Sabri.
“I have told the team here that if there are people who did not come for the jabs, the team should go house to house,” he added when speaking to reporters after a drive-through vaccination programme at the Lok Kawi army camp on Saturday (June 26).
On Wednesday (June 23) Army medics went to Long Pasia to help with the immunisation of villagers there in line with the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme.
Ismail Sabri said that they are focusing on rural and remote areas in Sabah because there were concerns of difficulty in curbing the spread among the rural community if there is an infection.
“If a person gets infected, it can spread fast because there are no clinics near them, so getting treatment will be difficult and there is a delay of one or two days, the whole village could be infected,” said Ismail Sabri.
Moving forward, Ismail said Kampung Inarad in Tongod district will be the next location for the outreach programme in July, where 200 vaccine recipients have been identified.
He said his side will also sit down with the Sabah government to identify which villages need to be visited first by the CMVT, adding that there is a “long list” of 132 villages.
“We will prioritise villagers based on the recommendation of the state government and we will get to the villagers using whatever transportation we have, whether it is trucks or helicopters. Ultimately, we do not want any village to be left behind,” said Ismail Sabri.