Vaccination outreach races against time to jab rural Sandakan folk

SANDAKAN – Among the most arduous tasks in the ongoing Covid-19 inoculation drive in Sabah has been the effort to quickly and urgently reach out to faraway isolated communities across the state before the virus spreads there.

While the Covid-19 Immunisation Taskforce’s (CITF) outreach programme has been bringing vaccine doses to islanders in waters off Sandakan, it recently began to also deliver the life-saving jabs to people at inland corners of the vast district.

The very first of these hinterland places was Kg Dandulit, a hamlet more than an hour’s drive from Sandakan town. The visit there revealed a mixture of desperation, hardship and sheer determination to survive among the many little-known and faraway communities under the threat of the pandemic.

Its village chief Mukrin Asas told The Vibes during the day-long CITF programme here that 162 doses were administered in that single day to villagers who had registered.

However, the 162 did not come by easily. He had to make his way from house-to-house in the village to persuade them all to take the vaccine.

“It had to be me (to persuade them) because I had taken the vaccine and I am a living proof that the vaccine is safe, because I am fine,” the 64-year-old said.

Being far afield from town, most villagers of Kg Dandulit had not registered for the Covid-19 vaccine through MySejahtera. Most were told that they could register manually at a public health clinic nearby.

Upon recording their registration details, the clinic then sent the data to the CITF Outreach programme team, who had brought over 160 Pfizer doses to the Kg Dandulit Community Hall.

The small village has 62 houses and about 400 residents, including children.

Feeling vulnerable and anxious

One struggling mother of three at Kg Dandulit could not afford to miss her chance to receive the Covid-19 vaccine. She had to leave her 7-year-old and 4-year-old children at home, while bringing her 1-year-old infant with her to the vaccination centre.

Having waited for several months, Norfarinah Rahilah Abdul Wahap was in a dilemma – no one was available to take care of her children.

The 28-year-old mother said that her husband was staying in Batu Sapi, another part of Sandakan, and was unable to return home.

“I had to ask my neighbour’s teenage daughters to look after my children at home. I do not know if they will be able to handle the task as it is the first time that I have asked them to babysit my kids.

“However, I had no choice, which is also why I am in a rush,” she told The Vibes when met at the makeshift vaccination base in the Kg Dandulit Community Hall here recently.

Norfarinah said she is sure that the teenage girls will not be able to handle her 1-year-old son who is still breastfeeding, and so she decided to bring her baby along to the vaccination hall.

She said she had learned about how important it is to get vaccinated from the television.

“As a mother with vulnerable young children, I know it is important for me to receive the vaccine as soon as possible,” she said.

However, the Health Ministry’s Sandakan CITF Outreach Programme coordinator, Dr. Muhammad Noor Fitri Abdul Rahman said that he was not happy with the registration rate of rural folks in the district so far.

“We need to inoculate as many of the villagers as possible in this programme so that it would be worth our trip, and also so that we can meet our objective to inoculate those who have difficulty leaving the village, such as the seniors and disabled.

“We also could not bring extra vaccines because we must ensure that there will be no wastage,” he said.

Hence, Dr Noor Fitri said his team was trying their best to get as many registrations as possible before carrying out an outreach programme such as this.

“The number of registrations has been increasing, but the percentage of the local adult population that has responded so far is still yet to be satisfactory.

“We hope the village chiefs and community leaders will be able to get more registrations, and we hope all our efforts will speed up the vaccination process in Sandakan,” he said. – The Vibes, August 16, 2021