KUCHING, March 4: Sarawak People’s Aspiration Party (Aspirasi) calls for the Sarawak government to allow for the involvement of the private medical sectors to expedite the delivery of the State vaccination process.
Its president Lina Soo in a statement today said the private health sector can also be mobilised very speedily and efficiently to complement the government’s efforts in ensuring the people are vaccinated in the shortest time possible to achieve the vaccination goals and many other benefits.
“To vaccinate 999,834 in Phase 3 of the Sarawak vaccination programme from May to August in 120 days will require 8,332 shots per day, which doubles to 16,664 shots per day if the vaccine is double dose.
“It is unrealistic that the Sarawak government facility can reach this target, given the size and breath of Sarawak’s geography, if the private sector is not engaged in the process,” she said.
Soo noted there are many benefits to approving the private sector to participate in this mass vaccination programme.
She said as a democratic country, it is a consumer right to get vaccinated at the earliest time possible at an approved vaccination institution with the vaccine of their choice.
“The second reason is economic. For every fee-paying patient, the government has one less patient to pay for, as the burden of cost is shifted to the willing buyer,” she added.
Soo pointed out that there is no need to fear that the vaccines for the most needy will be sacrificed as the Ministry of Health (MOH) can still dictate the quota and schedule for the private sector, and the maximisation of the private sector delivery can be done in Phase 3 of the programme.
She explained efficacy is not a crucial factor as all vaccines are good and efficacy is only an unproven claim based upon small sample size which provides insufficient and unreliable data to draw upon.
“Only the real mass vaccination results can prove any efficiency claim and the efficiency of flu shots is only at 45 per cent.
“With modern technology, tracking and planning is easy. Just add a feature in MySejahtera on the type of vaccine of choice and vaccination route preferred. With cloud analytics, this gives the government the data to optimise planning and delivery,” she added.
Meanwhile, Sarawak has set an ambitious target to vaccinate 2.2 million of its population, including the non-Sarawakian in the three-phased vaccination program by August this year, and has secured the supply of more than 87,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccine until the end of March.
As of yesterday, Sarawak topped the list of states in the country with a total of 8,323 individuals having received their first dose of the vaccination, in nine divisions throughout the state since the vaccination program rollout. – DayakDaily.
