KUALA LUMPUR: Forty thousand persons with disabilities (PwD) would be able to be vaccinated through the OKU Sentral National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme Drive-Through Vaccination Centre (PPV) in the next five months, more than doubling the initial total target recipients of 13,500.

OKU Sentral chairperson Senator Datuk Ras Adiba Radzi said Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba after a walk-through of the facility in Ara Damansara, Petaling Jaya today has requested that the PPV increases its capacity.

"We are pleased to announce that the minister has conveyed to us that he is happy with our ability to follow SOPs as well as our ability to roll out an immunisation programme for the OKU (PwD).

"We are also pleased to announce that the minister has requested that we increase our capacity at this first OKU (PwD) drive-through vaccination facility and over the next coming weeks we will look to increasing our capacity to 400 per day," she said in a statement here yesterday.

Ras Adiba who is also Bernama chairman said increasing the allocation for vaccination at the OKU Sentral drive-through showed the government's continued commitment to the PwD community, especially those who have been heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The OKU Sentral Drive-Through PPV began its vaccination roll-out yesterday with 80 vaccination shots given out per day until Friday, before increasing its capacity to 160 to 200 shots per day from June 21 onwards for the next five months.

The current roll-out is based on registrations received by OKU Sentral, of which 13,500 PwD will be given their vaccination appointments through the MySejahtera application.

Registration via OKU Sentral's Google Form for this round of vaccination is currently closed and will be reopened soon to accommodate the new target of giving out 40,000 vaccination shots within the next five months.

-- BERNAMA