KUCHING, June 5: Does Sarawak Democratic Action Party (DAP) chairman Chong Chieng Jen want Sarawakians to wait until October for the vaccines, questioned Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) Youth secretary-general Milton Foo.
Foo posed the question after reiterating that the Covid-19 vaccine procurement by state governments and private hospitals was likely only available after October due to the limited amount of vaccines in the global market.
“The Association of Private Hospital of Malaysia (APHM) President Datuk Dr Kuljit Singh, in The Star newspaper today, said vaccine procurement by state governments and private hospitals may only be available after October due to the limited availability of the vaccines in the market.
“Does Chong want us Sarawakians to wait until September or October for the vaccine supplies to arrive Sarawak and have our vaccinations only by then?
“If he truly cares for the lives of Sarawakians, the only thing he should be looking at is how fast the vaccines can reach Sarawak and be given to everyone within the shortest period of time,” he said in a statement today.
He was responding to Chong’s previous statement where the latter bombarded the Sarawak government for putting aside its earlier plan to purchase its own vaccine supplies.
Instead of dwelling on whether the federal or State government is paying for the vaccines, Foo asserted that the priority should be on the fastest available pipeline in getting more vaccine doses to Sarawak.
He said National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (NCIP) Coordinating Minister Khairy Jamaluddin had already given his word that Sarawak will be allocated about 380,000 doses of vaccines per week starting June and this will continue on weekly until a total of 4.4 million doses, estimated by end of August, is fully supplied.
“With that announcement, Sarawak can now have (sufficient) vaccine supplies by August and may become the first State in Malaysia to complete its vaccination for its people,” he said. — DayakDaily
