By Petronella Felix
KUCHING: Telang Usan assemblyman Dennis Ngau has urged his rural constituents to get vaccinated against Covid-19 in order to lower the risk of infection.
He reminded that the Telang Usan service centre as well as the district office and community leaders have constantly urged and encouraged the local community to get vaccinated.
“We also arranged transportation for those who do not have one to go to the vaccination centres (PPV) in our effort to encourage them,” he said.
Dennis said that based on the information shared by the Health Ministry (KKM) and Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC), about 99 percent of the positive cases lately are of the Category 1 and Category 2 (no symptom and mild symptom).
He urged the villagers to heed the government and health experts who have been continuously telling the public that the severity of the Covid-19 infection was dependent on vaccination.
He said it was crucial to get vaccinated to protect themselves from Covid-19, pointing out that although vaccination does not guarantee that they would not get infected, at least it would minimise the severity.
Dennis observed that people were too relaxed after receiving their vaccination saying this was a dangerous practice in the community.
“We need to continuously practise a strict Covid-19 prevention standard operating procedure (SOP) to protect ourselves and others because while we are vaccinated, we could be a carrier for the virus to spread to other people,” he said.
He expressed relief that over 80 percent of those eligible for inoculation in Telang Usan have already received at least their first dose of the vaccine.
“However, unfortunately, there are certain people of the Penan community here who are still reluctant to receive the vaccination despite the efforts done by the community leaders, district office and service centres,” he said.
Dennis added that he was worried that the reluctant individuals might have received negative information from unreliable sources that made them fear to get their Covid-19 vaccination.
“Despite this, I am relieved that some of them have voluntarily come forward to be inoculated at the vaccination centres (PPV),” he said.
