By Karen Bong
KUCHING, Aug 11: The State Covid-19 vaccination drives are still ongoing, with scaled up efforts made to reach out to eligible people who have yet to get their vaccine shots.
For Kuching, a mobile vaccination bus was at the Sg Apong basketball court today from 8am until 1pm and the mobile team will continue to operate on Aug 14 at Kenyalang Theatre to reach as many eligible people as possible.
In addition, people can also walk-in to the vaccination centre (PPV) run by Jalan Masjid Health Clinic at Majma Hall located behind Wisma Hopoh to get their first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine shots.
The PPV will operate on Aug 14 from 8am to 1pm, Aug 16 (8am to 4pm) and Aug 17 (8am to 4pm).
Vaccine recipients who are aged 18 and above are advised to bring along their MyKad, passport, pen, list of medications and mobile phone to check in with the MySejahtera app.
People in other districts can contact the resident offices, district offices as well as PPVs and health clinics in their respective areas to make arrangements and appointments for their vaccination.
Sarawak authorities including the State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) have made repeated calls for people to get vaccinated to protect themselves and the community at large against the Covid-19, more so when more contagious and transmissible variants have emerged in the State.
It has been reported that the Delta variant, which is also present in Sarawak, is driving a new surge in Covid-19 cases globally including in Malaysia, Thailand, China, Australia, Bangladesh, Singapore, UK and the US.
Note also that Japan has confirmed the first case of the Lambda variant which was first identified in Peru on Aug 7.
Compared with the conventional strain, the variant may be more infectious and have stronger resistance to vaccines, but details are not known yet.
While fully vaccinated people can still get infected with Covid-19, however, more studies and evidence have shown that vaccines provide a high degree of protection against getting seriously ill and dying from the disease.
Minister for Local Government and Housing Datuk Seri Dr Sim Kui Hian had previously explained that vaccination has significantly reduced Covid-19 cases under more severe categories of 3, 4 and 5 as well as deaths, which subsequently contributed to the drop in hospital admissions and intensive care unit (ICU) hospitalisations in Sarawak public hospitals.
As Sarawak Covid-19 statistics also show that more youths below the age of 18 are getting infected, which accounted for about 20 per cent of the cases reported between July 15 and Aug 3 in Sarawak General Hospital, he had urged the Sarawak Covid-19 Advisory Group (Scovag) to evaluate and look into ways to safely vaccinate kids and teens in the State.
Dr Sim, who is also SDMC advisor, also revealed today that 31 per cent or 260 of the 836 Covid-19 positive cases reported yesterday (Aug 10) were those below the age of 18.
With Covid-19 variants of concern (VOC) appearing on our shores, he stressed that Sarawak remains on high alert as the number of people infected can overwhelm and pose a challenge to the public healthcare systems in the State, such as the situation in Peninsular Malaysia at present.
As of Aug 10, Sarawak has achieved high vaccination coverage among its adult population with 87.5 per cent or 1,788,194 people having received the first dose of the vaccines, and 76 per cent or 1,552,478 have been fully vaccinated with two-dose vaccines.
Sarawak is the second state in Malaysia with the highest percentage of its population vaccinated against Covid-19 after Labuan which has had 97.4 per cent of its population inoculated with the first dose and 86.6 per cent have completed the two-dose vaccination.
However, even when partially and fully vaccinated, people are reminded to not be lax about Covid-19 safety and must continue to take precautionary steps and adhere to all standard operating procedures (SOP) including wearing face masks, keep a safe distance from others and avoiding gatherings or social activities in order to add another layer of protection and to stop the spread of Covid-19 in the community. — DayakDaily
