KUALA Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) must develop a way to ensure that the city’s homeless are vaccinated against Covid-19, said those running soup kitchens and helping the homeless.

Pertiwi Soup Kitchen founder, Munirah Abdul Hamid, said among some of the problems to expect when vaccinating the homeless locating them as they are spread across the city.

Another issue is to ensure they get both doses of the vaccine, if they receive one that requires two rounds of inoculation.

“The homeless are all over the city and it will not be easy to get all of them.

“Some might come for the first vaccine shot and then they might not turn up for the second shot,” she told The Malaysian Insight.

Malaysia’s national vaccination drive against Covid-19 began on February 24. It is aimed at inoculating at least 80% of Malaysia’s population in a year’s time, but the government is now aiming to achieve this target by the end of the year.

Munirah suggested that the homeless be placed in temporary shelters to ensure that they are properly vaccinated.

“What DBKL can do is gather the homeless and place them in temporary shelters for the duration of the vaccination period, which is 21 days.

“This will ensure that all the homeless will get vaccinated. Unless there is a single shot vaccine, but that’s not available yet.”

The second dose of the vaccine must be administered after 21 days, based on the vaccines currently procured by Malaysia.

According to the Health Ministry, as of March 21, 412,342 people have taken the first dose, while 16,368 people have taken the second dose.

Munirah estimates that there are about 700 homeless people around the city.

“There is not a fixed database. They could be here for months and then they move on.

“Some could have gotten themselves a job or some balik kampung (return to their hometown). So, it’s hard to keep track.”

The Pertiwi Soup Kitchen feeds about 500 people daily in two sessions. Besides the homeless, some have dwellings but fall under the urban poor category.

“We also hope that DBKL can focus on the urban poor for the vaccination programme.

“There are many of them around and they need assistance,” Munirah said.

Meanwhile, Kechara Soup Kitchen operations director Justin Cheah said it has raised the issue of vaccination with Kuala Lumpur mayor Mahadi Che Ngah.

“There was a meeting with the mayor and Federal Territories Ministry representatives to talk about this issue, apart from setting up a temporary shelter for the homeless in KL.

“We have voiced our interest to cooperate and assist in this (vaccination) process.”

Cheah said Kechara had its own database of the homeless and they would be happy to work with the ministry. – March 23, 2021.