SIBU: A total of 116,661 or 50 percent of the total local population of 232,528 here have received at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.
This was said by Sibu Divisional Disaster Management Committee (DDMC) coordinator Dr Annuar Rapaee when met by the media while observing the vaccination process on committee members of houses of worship at the Sibu Islamic Welfare Trust Board (Lakis) vaccination centre (PPV) on Friday.
Dr Annuar, who is also Public Health and Housing Assistant Minister, said based on data from the Health Department, 86,821 individuals had received the first dose while 29,840 had completed the vaccine.
“As of June 24, a total of 116,661 individuals in Sibu have received the first dose of vaccine which includes 88,328 individuals in Sibu district.
“As for Selangau and Kanowit districts, there are 12,859 individuals and 15,474 individuals respectively,” said the Education, Science and Technology Research Assistant Minister.
Dr Annuar said, out of 88,328 recipients in Sibu district, 64,147 individuals had received their first dose of the vaccine and 24,181 individuals had completed both doses.
In Selangau, he said, a total of 12,859 recipients comprising 10,377 individuals had received the first dose and another 2,482 individuals had completed the second dose.
For Kanowit, the Nangka assemblyman said a total of 15,474 individuals are eligible to get the vaccine, where 2,297 individuals have received the first dose and another 3,177 have completed both doses.
In addition Dr Annuar revealed that the division has a very high daily vaccination rate for the month of June as it had surpassed its daily target.
He said as of June 24, the number of daily vaccinations amounted to 6,777 compared to its daily target of 4,776 for the Sibu division.
Following the increase in the daily vaccination rate, Dr Annuar is confident that Sibu division will be able to achieve herd immunity as it only needs another 30 percent of the total population to be vaccinated by the end of August.
Meanwhile, a total of 125 committee members of houses of worship including churches, temples, shrines, surau and mosques have received their vaccinations from 5.30pm to 8pm.
“This is one of our efforts to enable houses of worship to be opened when the time comes so that the community’s confidence can be increased in line with the National Covid-19 Immunisation Program (PICK) which is currently being carried out throughout the country.
“Hopefully, the herd immunity in Sibu will be able to be established early as we still have two more months towards the target and we need another 30 percent of the division’s population,” he said.
