MySejahtera stumbling block to Covid-19 rollout efforts, says Chong

KUCHING, June 9: Sarawak DAP asserts that the MySejahtera app is slowing down the Covid-19 vaccination rollout.

In a statement today, Sarawak Democratic Action Party (DAP) chief Chong Chieng Jen said the purpose of a computer application (app) is to facilitate and make a task easier.

“It is only under the failed administration of this failed PN (Perikatan Nasional) government that the MySejahtera app becomes burdensome and slows down the process of vaccination,” said Chong.

He said yesterday, he received two complaints from members of the public that they were notified that their vaccination appointments originally scheduled for June 8, 2021 at Timberland Medical Centre were postponed at the last minute by MySejahtera when they had already turned up at the hospital. They were not allowed to receive the vaccine.

According to Chong, to speed up the vaccination process, in addition to the existing vaccination centres, the government should expedite the involvement of private general practitioners (GPs) to administer the vaccination, namely, cut the bureaucracy and allow for a “Vaccinate First, Register and Update Later” process.

“Give the GPs few hundred doses each at one time and allow the public to drop by the GPs’ clinics for vaccination without having to wait for the MySejahtera app to allocate the appointment (which is taking ages).

“Set up 100 mobile teams to go around housing estates throughout Sarawak and use the community halls or even schools in the vicinities as temporary PPVs (vaccination centres) to administer the vaccination. Equally, the government should allow for “Vaccinate First, Register and Update Later” process.

Chong who is also the Kota Sentosa assemblyman and Stampin MP lamented that one week into June, the vaccination rate in Sarawak is still very slow.

“There is no marked increase in the vaccination rate. Is the GPS government serious about expediting the vaccination process to reach the 80 per cent target by end of August?”

The following table supplied by Chong lists the number of vaccine doses administered in Sarawak as of the first week of June.

* Figures from the Special Committee for Ensuring Access to Covid-19 Vaccine Supply (JKJAV) Facebook page.

According to the above tabulations, Chong said this has been an average of 10,736 vaccine doses administered per day, with the maximum number of doses administered per day standing at 14,781 on June 7, and the number of doses administered in Sarawak dropping to 12,317 the next day on June 8.

This is despite setting up Borneo Convention Centre Kuching (BCCK) as an additional PPV to administer AstraZeneca vaccine, he said.

He pointed out that as early as April, Local Government and Housing Minister Dato Sri Dr Sim Kui Hian had said that the State government has the capacity to deliver 50,000 doses per day and blamed the lack of vaccine supply for the low vaccination rate.

“On May 28, 2021, (Science, Technology and Innvoation Minister), Khairy (Jamaluddin) came to Sarawak and announced that Sarawak will be getting 380,000 doses per week from the federal government starting June and that there is no need for the State government to purchase additional vaccine doses.

“Yet, now that first week of June has passed, there is still no marked increase in the rate of vaccinations in Sarawak.

“The GPS (Gabungan Parti Sarawak) government should know that every day of delay in the administering of the vaccines will cause unnecessary lives to be lost, prolong the agony of the frontliners and cause greater economic losses to the State and the people,” said Chong.

He believed that to the people, there is nothing more urgent than an effective and efficient vaccination rollout. — DayakDaily