By Ling Hui
KUCHING, May 20: Sarawak will open a separate Covid-19 vaccination centre (PPV) to administer the AstraZeneca (AZ) vaccines to volunteers.
State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) chairman Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas said the venue of this specific PPV was one of the topics discussed between Sarawak and Kuala Lumpur (KL) representatives this morning.
“(Administering) AstraZeneca is a separate exercise. It is on a voluntary and first-come-first-served basis.
“They have a separate PPV which will be managed by another group. KL is having a meeting with us this morning, so then we (Sarawak) will coordinate,” he said during a work visit to Stadium Perpaduan, Petra Jaya here today.
On May 18, the Sarawak government agreed to allow the use of AZ in Sarawak on a voluntary basis following the result of an online survey stating that 69.4 per cent of 1,037 respondents were in favour of giving Sarawakians this vaccination option.
Prior to that, the Sarawak government was reluctant to take up this Covid-19 vaccine and had rejected National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (Pick) coordinating minister Khairy Jamaluddin’s offer due to public concerns over its side effects.
Currently, the registration to opt-in for the AZ vaccine is closed and will only start this coming Sunday (May 23) until May 26 only for senior citizens aged 60 and above.
Khairy, however, pointed out that if there are excess AZ vaccine slots yet to be taken after May 26, registrations would open up to the general public. — DayakDaily
