MARANG, July 15 — The Covid-19 vaccination programme for nearly 10,000 residents and tour operators at Terengganu resort islands began today and is expected to end by October.
Terengganu State Health director Dr Nor Azimi Yunus said the outreach programme series started off with the vaccination of 60 resort and chalet operators, scuba diving trainers and boat drivers at Pulau Kapas.
“Next week the programme at Pulau Redang in Kuala Nerus will involve over 2,000 residents and tour operators, and subsequently it will be held at Pulau Perhentian in Besut, Pulau Tenggol in Dungun and Kenyir Lake in Hulu Terengganu,” she told reporters here today.
She said the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine would be dispensed instead of CanSino which was proposed earlier, adding that the vaccination process must be expedited before the monsoon season hits.
Meanwhile, several Pulau Kapas tour operators when met lauded the initiative to vaccinate the people on the islands as this could could help restart the tourism sector.
Qimi Private Bay Resort owner, Rosmawati Abdul Hamid, 57, hopes that tourism activities will be able to resume with priority given to tour operators who have completed two doses of the vaccine.
“Right now I am depending on my savings to stay in business, but if this pandemic continues for a long time, I can’t imagine what is going to happen to us,” she said.
A scuba diving business owner, Zainal Azam Hashim, 58, felt relieved as he need not have to travel to the mainland to get his vaccine shot.
“I thank the government for easing the vaccination process for us. It is a relief to finally get the vaccine and this, apart from strict compliance of the SOPs will protect us from infection,” he said.
As of July 13, 28.41 per cent of the people in Terengganu have received the first dose while 14.93 per cent the second dose.
The state health department is targeting to vaccinate 808,400 people, or 80 per cent of its 1,259,300 population to achieve herd immunity by this October. — Bernama
