KUALA LUMPUR, June 22 — Seventeen Mara Liner Sdn Bhd express buses have been modified into mobile vaccine administering centres (PPV) to speed up the vaccination process for rural communities, especially the Orang Asli across the peninsula.

Rural Development Minister, Datuk Abdul Latiff Ahmad said each of these mobile PPV had nine vaccination counters including one for the disabled (OKU), and could vaccinate 1,200 people when operating for a period of 10 hours.

"On a trial basis, two Mara Liner mobile PPV will leave for Sungai Siput in Perak this Saturday to help vaccinate the Orang Asli at a number of villages in the area. Perak has the biggest number of Orang Asli, besides Pahang,” he told reporters after viewing the mobile PPV at the Mara Liner depot in Batu Muda, near here, today.

Dr Abdul Latiff said these mobile PPV’s operations also involved the setting up of counters including for confirmation, registration, consultation and vaccine recipient observation under the tents erected next to the mobile units.

All these counters were provided in line with the conditions set by the Ministry of Health, he added.

Dr Abdul Latiff said each of the Mara Liner mobile PPV was also manned by two doctors and nurses from U.n.i Klinik, a chain of clinics established through a programme (ProSPEC) under Mara while the vaccine supply came from MOH.

He said these PPV would be giving the vaccine to the rural communities regardless whether they had registered for vaccination through the MySejahtera application or not.

Her added that his ministry was committed to ensuring that the rural communities had access to the Covid-19 vaccine.

Meanwhile, Dr Abdul Latiff stated that to date, out of the 206,000 Orang Asli in the peninsula, 28,143 had agreed to receive the vaccine. — Bernama