Sibu Hospital extends vaccination programme to general public every Saturday from July 10

Dr Nanthakumar Thirunavukkarasu

SIBU, July 9: Sibu Hospital is now opening its Covid-19 vaccination programme to the public after having vaccinated 70 per cent of its specialist clinic patients and staff.

Its director Dr Nanthakumar Thirunavukkarasu said the hospital is accepting up to 4,000 members of the public for the programme which would be conducted every Saturday from 8am to 5pm, starting tomorrow (July 10) at its specialist clinic.

Dr Nathankumar  said the objective is to help the State Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF) and State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) achieve herd immunity by this August.


“We have never open our vaccination programme to the public but this time, we are doing it to achieve herd immunity as soon as possible. With that objective all our resources are directed to the vaccination programme,” he told reporters at Agape Centre here today.

The hospital’s first phase vaccination programme covers its staff, second phase involves high-risk patients and third phase is for its specialist clinic patients numbering 15,000 of them.

“Our targeted population is in Permai but we are also accepting people from other areas. We will try to have it every week based on the supply of vaccines that we get to speed up herd immunity” he said

Those interested, he said, can register with SUPP Bawang Assan chairman Senator Robert Lau Hui Yew.

He advised members of the public who had been jabbed to continue observing the standard operating procedure guidelines to prevent themselves from getting the coronavirus.

He also called on the people to play their role in helping to reduce the number of infections so that the hospital facility would not be overwhelmed.

“Cases have come down but there are still patients in our ICU. So we are trying our best to manage the situation. I believe that we will be successful. The next one month is important for us to vaccinate everyone and achieve herd immunity.

“With that I am confident we can break the chain of Covid-19 infection or at least bring it to a manageable level because we need to resume our other services,” he said. — DayakDaily