BAU, July 4: Sarawak will request the federal government to assess the domestic Covid-19 situation based on each district rather than as a State in order for a district to proceed into Phase Two of the National Recovery Plan (NRP).
Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas said the State government would leave the decision over Sarawak moving into the next phase of the NRP to the National Security Council (NSC) based on the stated threshold values of each district.
“We want to request from the federal government that Sarawak be assessed based on each of its Covid-19 district’s situation and performance rather than the State as a whole.
“Sarawak is a very big state and as big as Peninsular Malaysia. There is Limbang which can meet the NSC assessment benchmark,” he told reporters during his visit to the Covid-19 vaccination centre at the State Fire and Rescue Department Academy here today.
Earlier, Uggah was briefed on the progress of the Covid-19 vaccination rollout in Bau by Bau District Officer Anielia Siam.
According to her, some 29,373 eligible recipients (or 61.4 per cent) in the district had been vaccinated.
Meanwhile, Uggah who is also the Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) chairman said Sarawak is committed to ensuring the success of the last leg of its Covid-19 vaccination programme.
He believed that Sarawak is on track to meet its target of vaccinating its 2.2 million eligible recipients by the end of August 2021 although the target was “quite a tall order”.
“We have set up many public, government hospitals and clinics, industrial and private hospitals and clinics as vaccination centres state-wide. We have the mobile teams to reach out into the interiors.
“We are also assisted by the military combat medic teams,” he added.
Uggah noted that there was a strong sense of commitment, sacrifice and support from all the frontliners, the health department, SDMC, the administration, the people themselves and even the non-governmental organisations (NGO) to ensure the running of the vaccination programme conducted smoothly.
He said there would be the constant fine tunings to the existing mechanisms to render them more efficient and effective operation.
Uggah who is also Second Finance Minister added that as a whole, the state had achieved an excellent record in its vaccination operation.
He said in this last leg, the State hoped to ramp up its vaccination to 70,000 doses per day in the coming weeks.
“We had achieved 65,000 doses per day but yesterday we only did 47,679 doses.We are going to increase (it) to 60,000 doses per day.
“So we really have to catch up. As of yesterday (July 3), we have successfully vaccinated a cumulative total of 1.456,831 million.
“They comprise 1.178,303 million vaccinees for their first dose and 278,528 for their second dose,” he said.
Uggah, who is also Modernisation Agriculture, Native Land and Regional Development Minister said the State is looking forward to the arrival of the single dose CanSino vaccine, which is expected to be delivered to Sarawak by the middle or end of July.
“So we are looking at the supplies as promised by the federal government to beef up our vaccination programme particularly in the deep interiors,” he added.
Deputy Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities Datuk Willie Mongin, Tasik Biru assemblyman Datuk Henry Jinep, Serembu assemblyman Miro Simuh, Deputy State Secretary Datuk Ik Pahon Joyik and Kuching Division Health Officer Dr Eunice Melissa John were among those accompanying Uggah during his working visit to the vaccination centre at the State Fire and Rescue Department Academy. — DayakDaily
