By Nur Ashikin Louis
KUCHING, May 28: The federal government has given its assurance in delivering 4.4 million vaccination doses to Sarawak by the end of August.
With that, Sarawak will be the first State in Malaysia to complete its immunisation programme.
National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (Pick) Coordinating Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said a large scale vaccine shipment to Sarawak will begin in the first week of June with an estimated 380,000 doses.
“From there, continuous delivery of vaccines will be done weekly until the total amount of vaccines delivered reaches 4.4 million doses by the end of August.
“These doses will be enough to cater for Sarawak’s 2,084,678 adult population. The additional vaccines are sent as a buffer, just in case they have to vaccinate the foreign workers, undocumented migrants and so on,” he said.
He said this at a press conference after co-chairing a meeting between the National Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF) and the State CITF together with Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas at Wisma Bapa Malaysia here today.
Khairy added that following the promise to deliver the vaccine supply to Sarawak on time, the State government has responded that it will take the supply from the federal government.
He further said in order for Sarawak to achieve its target to vaccinate 70 per cent of its total population by August, Sarawak must achieve an average of 45,000 jabs daily.
Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah has disclosed that Sarawak has been able to inject 50,000 individuals a day, inferring that Sarawak is on track to meet its goal and subsequently, to become the first state to complete the vaccinations under the Pick.
Khairy added that the CITF would accelerate vaccination in the State through private general practitioners (GPs). So far, there are 23 private clinics and five private hospitals brought in to assist in rolling out Covid-19 vaccine shots.
“We will increase the number of private GPs to 39 clinics and seven hospitals soon,” he said.
Apart from that, the CITF would also mobilise its outreach team to the rural areas and the interior in order to target the rural folk to not be left behind in Pick programme. — DayakDaily
