Segambut MP promotes vaccine registration with chicken curry

 

As the pace of Covid-19 vaccine registration in the country is still slow, Segambut MP Hannah Yeoh today got creative in encouraging senior citizens in her constituency to enrol in the government's immunisation programme.

With some culinary skills up her sleeve, the 42-year-old politician organised a 11am cooking session at the Segambut Senior Citizens Activity Centre in Taman Kok Doh, Kuala Lumpur.

There, she brought her 'Dapur Hanayo' online cooking class to the physical world for the first time. She cooked chicken curry for some 80 attendees while at the same time sharing her recipe.

The catch? They have to also attend a brief engagement session by the Health Ministry where its representative explained the immunisation programme, its importance and other related matters.

The ministry representative, who was a doctor, also took questions from participants who were eager to know more about what they faced should they agree to enrol.

"Today I was asked to cook, so I brought my Dapur Hanayo programme live here. While I cook, the senior citizens can discuss with the Health Ministry doctor, who is here to answer any questions they have.

"We have to be creative to ensure more senior citizens register to get the Covid-19 vaccine," she said during the programme which was aired through Facebook Live.

According to Yeoh, by the time the programme ended, they managed to get 25 of the senior citizens there to register.

"I feel that senior citizens need to feel comfortable about vaccination," she said to Malaysiakini when asked about the event.

The DAP leader also expressed her appreciation to the Health Ministry for sending their doctors to brief the participants.

"I thank the ministry for sending doctors who can speak in multiple languages to converse, to answer any concerns they (the senior citizens) have no matter how petty they sound."

Yeoh also suggested that the ministry should print registration forms in Tamil and Mandarin as some senior citizens, especially those in their 70s and 80s, faced difficulty filling up the documents.

Yeah also organised another engagement programme in Segambut on the same day which registered another 18 individuals for vaccination.

For the record, the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme is seeing a slow increase of voluntary registration, especially by senior citizens who are expected to start receiving their jabs in two week's time.

As of April 9, the special committee that oversees vaccination said they received 8,378,754 registrations nationwide.

The figure translates to only 34.5 percent of Malaysia's population, a far cry from the 80 percent that the government targets to create herd immunity against the disease. - Mkini