By Karen Bong
MIRI, July 17: Hospitalisation and intensive care unit (ICU) admissions due to Covid-19 in Miri Division have seen a sharp decline, taking a lot of pressure and stress off of the public healthcare facilities.
Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg emphasised that the decline in Covid-19-associated hospitalisation rates was largely attributed to the decrease in infection numbers and the excellent progress of vaccinations in Miri Division.
“One thing to take note of is that the occupancy rate in the ICU has dropped, meaning less pressure for ICU beds. This means less people are being admitted to the ICU.
“Secondly, (normal) hospitalisations have also reduced with lower numbers of Covid-19 patients taking up hospital beds. This shows that hospitalisations and ICU admissions in Miri have dropped,” he told a press conference following his visit to Curtin University vaccination centre (PPV) today.
Commending the significant achievement of vaccination drives in Miri, Abang Johari expressed confidence that Miri Division will be able to achieve 80 per cent of its population vaccinated for Covid-19 in due time.
As of today, he shared that a total of 238,772 people or 72.5 per cent have been inoculated with the first dose of the vaccines, while 114,634 people have received the second dose which accounted for 35 per cent of the population.
“This is within the government’s target and I believe in one week or so, the percentage will increase. It is only a question of time as the response towards vaccination among the people here has been positive.
“This is the result of the close collaboration between public and private sectors as well as the community. Miri has made excellent progress in vaccination.
“In fact today, most of the people I met were there for their second dose (of vaccine). So this means the vaccination coverage will only gain momentum moving forward,” he added.
Abang Johari was glad to learn that all sectors of community were include in the State immunisation drive, especially workers in various industries including the retail sector.
“More importantly, we want to speed up vaccination for labour-intensive industry including plantations,” he said.
Earlier today, Abang Johari had visited three PPVs located at Miri Hospital, Riam Road Secondary School as well as Eastwood Valley Golf and Country Club.
He was accompanied by Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan, Minister for Local Government and Housing Datuk Seri Dr Sim Kui Hian, Transport Minister Datuk Lee Kim Shin and State Secretary Datuk Amar Jaul Samion. — DayakDaily
