KUCHING, March 19: There will be a two-week delay in Phase 2 of the state vaccination programme to give priority to outbreak areas such as Sibu, Kapit, Bintulu and Kuching.
According to Minister for Local Government and Housing Datuk Seri Dr Sim Kui Hian, the Sarawak government has inserted an urgent Phase 4 (outbreak areas) in the Sarawak vaccination programme where infected division areas with more than one million combined population will be priorities for the vaccination.
“I was made to understand that there is a slight delay of about one or two weeks and Phase 2 of the vaccination programme will be rolled out in mid-April.
“I was also told about the new category called phase 4 (outbreak area), and one of the reasons for the slight delay is because they are prioritising this area,” he said during a press conference held after attending the Wi-Fi Coverage Extension program held in SJK Chung Hua Rantau Panjang, in Batu Kawa, today.
Meanwhile, Sim, who is also the State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) advisor, said the Sarawak government is currently monitoring the situation in the densely populated red zone areas throughout the state carefully in order to prevent massive outbreaks among the population.
He said some of the red zone areas such as Sibu, Kapit, Bintulu and Kuching, and Miri, are responsible for about 75 per cent of the population.
“We are also looking at Kuching very carefully all the time because we have almost a million people here, and if the outbreak occurs in Kuching, it is almost the whole of the Sarawak population,” he added.
He explained that is why the Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah has written to Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin to officially purchase the vaccine and also has requested the Ministry of Health (MOH) to give priorities to outbreak areas in the state.
“What I mean is at the moment, Sarawak is the one with the highest numbers of daily testing in the whole country, and the key to all this is to vaccinate as fast as possible so we can put a stop to the virus transmission, then everybody will be safe,” he said. –DayakDaily.
