Senior citizen grateful for 'second chance' COVID-19 vaccine

MARANG: The widespread misinformation on COVID-19 vaccines has caused Maimun Abu Bakar to be really afraid of getting vaccinated and skip her vaccination appointment early last month.

However, the 78-year-old woman's perception changed after witnessing first-hand that three of her five children who had completed receiving both doses of their vaccine shots did not experience any severe side effect.

Last Friday, Maimun received a phone call from a Marang District Office representative who not only persuaded her to take the vaccine, but also offered her free transportation to the designated vaccination centre (PPV).

Not wanting to miss the 'second chance' given to her, she eventually decided to get herself vaccinated and before receiving her first dose of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, yesterday.

"Actually, my appointment was on May 4, but I asked for a postponement as I was not confident of the vaccines' safety after hearing various negative stories about their side effects.

"However, as I saw more people getting inoculated and they are all have been doing okay, I decided to ask my sister (Sarimah Abu Bakar, 55) to re-register my name (for the vaccination) through the phone (MySejahtera app)," she said when met by Bernama at the PPV at Dewan Utama Majlis Daerah Marang, here.

As promised, the senior citizen was taken to the PPV, located about three kilometres from her house in Kampung Seberang Marang by Marang District Office staff using a multi-purpose vehicle (MPV) at 10am yesterday.

The wheel-chair bound Maimun, who also has diabetes and had a hearing problem since last year was thankful that the vaccination process which only took less than 30 minutes went smoothly.

"What makes me happy is that my sister (Sarimah) also received her vaccine shot today (yesterday). We will never forget this moment," said Maimun who has 24 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren.

Meanwhile, Marang assistant district officer Mohd Kamal Abdul Rahman said they has opened an operations room to ensure smooth running of the vaccination process in the district and provided free transportation for vaccine recipients who do not have vehicles to go to the assigned PPVs.

"The operations room staff will contact vaccine recipients to remind them about their appointment and ask about transportation. We received the list of vaccine recipients' names from the Marang District Health Office.

"We have also asked the cooperation from the four state assembly community service centres or offices and other government agencies in this district such as the Marang Public Works Department to provide vehicles for senior citizens and residents in areas that are quite far from the PPVs," he said.

Mohd Kamal said so far, two PPVs had been opened in Marang, namely at Dewan Utama Majlis Daerah Marang dan Dewan Sivik Bukit Payong.

-- BERNAMA