KOTA BARU: The Kelantan Health Department has listed four major challenges it faces which has led to the state holding the unenviable distinction of having one of the lowest Covid-19 vaccination rates in the country.
State health director Datuk Dr Zaini Hussin said the first issue was the disparity in population numbers.
"The Department of Statistics' 2010 records showed that 1.23 million of the 1.9 million people in Kelantam were above 18. However, records by the state's district offices showed that as of 2020, there were only 1.1 million adults living in the state.
"The difference in figures is due to many Kelantanese having migrated to other states and as such, may have had their vaccine jabs in other states," he told the New Straits Times.
The Health Department, he said, also faced a stumbling block at the onset of the Covid-19 National Immunisation Programme (NIP) with only 30 per cent registering via MySejahtera.
Dr Zaini said as of Oct 20, while 74.2 percent of adults in the state have registered via the app, many are still refusing to do so.
"Those holding out are afraid of the vaccine or its side effects.
"Additionally, some 30 per cent of the state's frontliners had previously refused to get vaccinated. However, thanks to the various efforts and promotions done by the state NIP teams, the Health Department, local authorities as well as the state government, we have managed to trim this number down to 9,000 people," he said.
He said the authorities also had to battle perception issues as in the early stages, a significant segment of the state's population viewed that the Comirnaty vaccine was "the best vaccine" and as such, the people rejected other vaccines such as Coronavac and AstraZeneca.
"However, with the sharp increase of Covid-19 deaths and rising number of cases, this perception has thankfully changed.
"Many began asking for early vaccination regardless of the brand of vaccine," he said.
He said the Health Department has adopted various measures to increase the vaccination rate in Kelantan.
"The percentage of those who registered via MySejahtera are low in certain areas and many locals, especially the elderly, do not have smartphones. As such, we conducted outreach activities as early as June.
"This helped not only the elderly but also those bedridden, those in rural areas and also villagers in the interior areas that do not have internet coverage," he said.
He said vaccine distribution was not only focused on public vaccination centres but also covered all parliamentary and state constituencies.
"All members of parliament as well as assemblymen have been going to the ground to helping the authorities get the locals to take the vaccine.
"The introduction of mobile vaccination centres using buses as well as the use of helicopters provided by various departments and agencies have also helped us a lot in this exercise."