Inoculation drive at resort islands

MARANG: A vaccination programme for nearly 10,000 residents and tour operators at resort islands in Terengganu began yesterday and is expected to end by October.

State health director Dr Nor Azimi Yunus said the programme started with 60 resort and chalet operators, scuba diving trainers and boat drivers in 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 yesterday.

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.

Several Pulau Kapas tour operators lauded the initiative to vaccinate the people on the islands as the move could help restart the tourism sector.

Qimi Private Bay Resort owner Rosmawati Abdul Hamid, 57, expressed hope that tourism activities would be able to resume, with priority given to tour operators who have completed both 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.

Scuba diving business owner Zainal Azam Hashim expressed relief as he need not 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 standard operating procedures, will protect us from infection.”

As of July 13, 28.41% of the people in Terengganu have received the first dose while 14.93% have been fully vaccinated.

The state health department is targeting to vaccinate 808,400 people, or 80% of its 1,259,300 population, to achieve herd immunity by October.