Orang Asli ready for endemic COVID-19 phase

Kampung Punan Tok Batin, Acai Kadir said the government should always ensure that the community is provided with the much needed information, especially in facing this endemic phase.

"The (Orang Asli) community welcomes the vaccination programme and explanation from the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the Department of Orang Asli Development (JAKOA) is important.

"The world is sophisticated now, there is the internet and so on. My hope is that JAKOA and MOH will provide detailed information from time to time, so that the community will not be left behind," he told Bernama when met at the COVID-19 National Immunisation Programme for Mersing district at Sekolah Kebangsaan Punan here recently.

He said the information provided by the agencies involved must be in line with current developments because despite living in rural areas, the majority of Orang Asli people always follow the latest news.

"If possible, we want more online discussions rather than offline. Since the pandemic hit (the country), meetings or discussions are often disrupted, maybe we can do it via Google Meet as COVID-19 cases in the country are still high," he said.

To avoid getting false information from irresponsible parties, Acai said some information is now channelled through WhatsApp application and outreach programmes.

Meanwhile, Mersing JAKOA officer Nor Faizzi Sulaiman said as of Sept 20, a total of 714 Orang Asli people in the district had received the first dose of the vaccine while 295 people had been fully vaccinated.

"Those who are eligible to be vaccinated are 1,043 people and the number of those who have been vaccinated is high," he said.

He added that the vaccination process involving the community would be carried out continuously in the government's efforts to prepare for the endemic phase next month.

"COVID-19 vaccine acceptance among the villagers is getting better lately. The percentage of those who agree to be vaccinated is also increasing. Previously, they rejected the vaccine because of misinformation.

"With the help of volunteers, JAKOA officers went from house to house and we managed to increase the percentage of vaccine willingness which shows the effectiveness of the outreach programmes," he said.

A total of 336 Orang Asli from the Jakun tribe in Kampung Orang Asli Tewowoh, Kampung Punan and Kampung Peta received their vaccine shots during the two-day programme which was participated by 95 staff from Mersing health office, district office, JAKOA and Land Office as well as NGOs.