By Nur Ashikin Louis
KUCHING, May 23: Covid-19 vaccination in private hospitals in Sarawak will start on May 25, said Dato Sri Dr Sim Kui Hian.
In announcing this, the Local Government and Housing Minister said he had recently arranged a Zoom meeting with the State Health Department (JKNS) and all the private hospitals in Sarawak.
The meeting deliberated on preparation of the substantial increase in Covid-19 vaccines supply from National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) from June onwards.
“However, the vaccination in private hospitals will start on May 25. The discussion during the meeting also included storage capacity of vaccines,” he said in a Facebook post last night.
Dr Sim, who is also Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) advisor, further said he would help to facilitate with the Protect Health Corporation (PHC) in Kuala Lumpur on issues faced by the private hospitals in Sarawak.
“Apart from that, not including AstraZeneca (AZ), Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF) will schedule more than one million doses of vaccines (Pfizer and Sinovac) under PICK every month from June until Aug.
“These vaccine shots are to be given to those who have registered,” he added.
As of May 20, only a total of 1,147,403 eligible Sarawakians have registered for vaccination through MySejahtera app. It is estimated that one million more eligible Sarawakians have yet to register.
As of May 19, a total of 133,421 Sarawakians had received their first dose of vaccines.
On May 21, Dr Sim disclosed that over 30 private general practitioner (GP) clinics and seven private hospitals in Sarawak have registered with PHC to assist in rolling out Covid-19 vaccine shots to the public on appointment basis as per MySejahtera app system.
While the vaccines are offered free to the public, PHC will reimburse RM14 to the healthcare provider for each vaccination. — DayakDaily
