KUCHING, June 4: With the first week of June coming to an end, there is still no news on the first weekly batch of 380,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines promised by National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (NCIP) Coordinating Minister Khairy Jamaluddin for Sarawak.
Not only that, Democratic Action Party (DAP) chairman Chong Chieng Jen said the Sarawak government’s previous plans to purchase its own vaccines seemed to have been put aside as well.
“Since February, 2021, we have been hearing the State government talking about purchasing vaccines on its own.
“Recently on May 28, Khairy told Sarawak that Sarawak will be allocated a total of 4.4 million doses of vaccines to be delivered by weekly batches of 380,000 doses starting June.
“With that announcement, all plans to purchase vaccines by the State government is now suddenly put aside,” he said in a statement yesterday (June 3).
Noting the current slow progress of vaccination, he thus urged both the federal and State governments to get serious with the immunisation programme and step up the roll out as it has been proven in other countries to be the effective way to fight the pandemic.
Chong, who is also Kota Sentosa assemblyman, said the UK reported zero deaths from Covid-19 on June 1 and despite it being a one-day figure, it still showed the turning around for the better in the country that was once the hardest hit by the Coronavirus.
When things are getting better in other countries, he said, Malaysia including Sarawak are going the opposite direction when Malaysia recorded 126 Covid-19 deaths on June 2, which was by far the highest single day death toll.
“These figures can only point to one conclusion. The PN (Perikatan Nasional) government has failed us Malaysians and the GPS (Gabungan Parti Sarawak) government has failed us Sarawakians.
“That is why the internet tagline of ‘KerajaanPNGagal’ is gaining more shares and tags now,” he added. — DayakDaily
