Critical support during a pandemic

Johor Published 2 years ago on 31 July 2021 | Author TIN Media
JOHOR:

 More than 530,000 people in Johor have registered to be vaccinated, thanks to the efforts of the non-governmental organisation (NGO) Southern Volunteers, which was deployed just one month ago.

Datuk Onn Hafiz Ghazi, chairman of the Johor tourism, youth and sports committee, said Southern Volunteers were mobilised not only to assist with registration but also to help ease the vaccination process at all vaccination centres (PPV) in the state.

“The volunteers were deployed on June 10 and as of July 24, we have registered 531,896 people for vaccination.

“To date, more than 91% of the Johor adult population or 2.4 million people have been registered for vaccination,” Onn Hafiz said when contacted.

He said the state government would also be appealing to the Federal Government to help Johor reach its herd immunity target.

“The large number of registration will be in vain if they do not coincide with vaccine supplies, therefore we urge the Federal Government to ensure that the vaccines arrive in Johor as planned.

“Lately, we have been seeing high infection rates not only in Johor but throughout the country, therefore the sooner we get our people vaccinated, the sooner we can reach the herd immunity target,” he added.

Onn Hafiz said there were 44 PPVs in Johor that currently had a capacity of vaccinating 60,000 people a day.

“So within 10 days, we could vaccinate about 600,000 people, or two to three million people a month.”

He disclosed that only 1,000 volunteers were currently active on the ground, from the total 15,000 registered.

“We have to limit their numbers in order to follow standard operating procedures (SOP) and avoid crowding that can lead to potential clusters,” he said.

He added that some volunteers had been assigned to assist other groups of volunteers under Youth and Sports Ministry, through the Malaysia Vaccine Support Volunteers (MyVac) programme.