By Ling Hui
KUCHING, July 4: Low vaccine hesitancy in Sarawak is one of the key contributors to its rapidly rising Covid-19 vaccination rate, says State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) advisor Dato Sri Dr Sim Kui Hian.
“I am very happy that, in Sarawak, we don’t have a lot of vaccine hesitancy. Otherwise, we won’t be able to vaccinate so many,” he said.
He added that getting vaccinated from Covid-19 is entirely voluntary and it could not be forced on anyone without informed consent.
Unlike in Singapore now where vaccine hesitancy is high as about 50 per cent of its population is already vaccinated, Sarawak has been receiving a good response from the public.
Dr Sim, who is also Minister for Local Government and Housing, thus thanked all Sarawakians who have registered themselves for vaccination and those who had willingly stepped forward to get their vaccine jabs.
Meanwhile, he said the frontliners and medical officers toiling away in vaccination centres play another huge part in Sarawak’s fast immunisation pace.
“This is really the spirit of Sarawak’s solidarity where everybody comes together and achieve something.
“This is the best we can get out of this Covid-19 (pandemic) that Sarawakians unite for the sake of Sarawak as a whole,” he said during a visit to the vaccination drive at the KMC Flat bus stop here today.
The drive was specially arranged by the Ministry of Transport for the residents of KMC flat where 107 of them boarded the RM1 stage buses for free to the Tanah Puteh Health Clinic for their vaccination.
Kuching South City Council (MBKS) mayor Dato Wee Hong Seng was among those present at the event today.
According to the reports by the Special Committee on Ensuring Access to Covid-19 Vaccine Supply (JKJAV) as of 11.59pm on July 3, Sarawak has administered 1,178,303 first doses and 278,528 second doses.
With that, 41.8 per cent of Sarawak’s total population has been vaccinated with Dose 1 and another 9.9 per cent with Dose 2.
At the same time, 57.7 per cent of the adult population in Sarawak was inoculated with Dose 1 and another 13.6 per cent with Dose 2. — DayakDaily
