By Karen Bong
KUCHING, Feb 24: The highly anticipated State vaccine rollout will begin this Friday (Feb 26) or a day earlier than previously scheduled with Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg will be the first Sarawakian to receive the jab at Petra Jaya health clinic.
Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah revealed this after witnessing and receiving the first consignment of 23,400 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech’s ultra-cold vaccine which landed at 6.18pm today at Raya Airways’ Cargo Warehouse in Kuching International Airport (KIA) here.
The vaccines have been taken to a storage facility at an undisclosed location before being distributed to identified vaccination centres around the State.
“Today we witnessed a historic event which all Sarawakians have been waiting for. The vaccines have now landed in Bumi Kenyalang,” he told a press conference at the warehouse.
The vaccination programme will also begin simultaneously in Sibu on Friday.
Uggah, who is also State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) chairman, thus hoped the people of Sarawak will take this opportunity to sign up for the free vaccination by registering via MySejahtera app which has been activated or through District and Resident Offices.
“The schedules of the vaccination programme will depend on the arrival of vaccines (in the coming weeks),” he explained about the vaccination programme that will be carried out in three phases.
He thus urged people to be patient as vaccination will involve a tedious process.
“We hope everyone will be patient when going through the process because we want to make sure that the vaccines are administered properly,” he added.
Uggah expressed thanks to Chief Minister, Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and the Federal government for ensuring the delivery of the first consignment of the vaccines to Sarawak.
Minister for Local Government and Housing Datuk Seri Dr Sim Kui Hian, State Secretary Datuk Amar Jaul Samion and State Health director Dr Chin Zin Hing were among those present. – Dayakdaily
