191 village community centres to be used a rural vaccination registration centres

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Dr Abdul Latiff said the initiative was aimed at helping about 7.6 million people in the rural area, especially those without the MySejahtera application and Internet access. – File photo

MERSING (May 6): A total 191 village community centres (PKD) nationwide will be used as Rural Vaccination Registration Centres from May 20, said Minister of Rural Development (KPLB) Datuk Dr Abdul Latiff Ahmad.

He said the initiative was aimed at helping about 7.6 million people in the rural area, especially those without the MySejahtera application and Internet access.

“Of the total, 155 PKD have Internet access while 36 PKD will provide manual registration forms for Covid-19 vaccination. The managers of the PKD will hand over the completed forms to the District Health Offices,” he told a media conference in conjunction with the Mersing District Covid-19 Vaccination Programme today.

He said the training sessions and briefings for the PKD managers would be conducted by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation’s Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force to help smoothen the registration process.

He said the ministry was targeting an increase of 20 to 30 per cent in registration for vaccination from among the rural communities through the activation of the PKD as Rural Vaccination Registration Centres.

The PKD was set up by KPLB in 2001 for the purpose of providing community training, boosting awareness and exposure on the use of communication and information (ICT) technology to help the economic growth of the rural communities.

Abdul Latiff said the ministry would continue to co-operate with other agencies, including the Community Development Department (Kemas), Department of Orang Asli Development (Jakoa), Rubber Industry Smallholders Development Authority (Risda) and Majlis Amanah Rakyat (Mara) in promoting the need for vaccination.

He also urged rural communities to always comply with the standard operation procedure (SOP) issued by the National Security Council (MKN) and ensure personal hygiene as measures to break the Covid-19 chain of infection. – Bernama