By Karen Bong
KUCHING, June 15: Sarawak’s Covid-19 vaccination drive has hit a record high of administering 41,456 vaccine doses in a single day yesterday.
Minister for Local Government and Housing Datuk Seri Dr Sim Kui Hian revealed that the vaccination drive throughout the State has been ramped up in the past four consecutive days ever since the arrival of the largest combined shipments of Sinovac and Pfizer-BionTech vaccines on June 9.
“On June 11, a total of 11,793 doses of vaccines were rolled out followed by June 12 (33,379 doses), June 13 (32,079 doses) and June 14 (41,456 doses),” he highlighted on his Facebook page today.
As of 11.59pm yesterday (June 14), he shared that a total of 355,676 Sarawak residents had received their first dose, and 159,920 residents had completed their second dose.
“(A combined) total of 515,596 first or second doses of vaccine were administered in Sarawak up to date since the State Covid-19 immunisation programme began on Feb 26 this year,” he added.
Meanwhile, Sarawak received two shipments of 445,920 new doses of Covid-19 vaccines on June 9, the largest single-day delivery to the State since shipments began in February this year.
The shipments consisting of 380,400 doses of Sinovac and 65,520 doses of Pfizer-BionTech vaccines were a big boost to Sarawak’s Covid-19 vaccine supply to date.
These shipments were part of the weekly vaccine supply promised by the Federal government which will continue to be delivered until August for Sarawak to meet its target of vaccinating at least 80 per cent of its population to create herd immunity.
The latest vaccine supply however excluded the 77,000 doses of AstraZeneca (AZ) vaccine which arrived in the first week of June in time for the AZ opt-in vaccination programme to start on June 7.
Following that, various mass vaccination centres (PPVs) have been set up at University Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) and Kozi Square next to Sarawak General Hospital (SGH), apart from existing ones at Indoor Stadium and SGH’s auditorium as well as private hospitals and clinics.
More importantly, a large number of mobile outreach teams have been deployed to rural areas to complement PPVs there in ramping up vaccines roll out to the rural population.
Industry PPVs are also only the way to start operation especially in Bintulu and Miri. — DayakDaily
