KUCHING: Miri needs to speed up the inoculation procedure to acquire herd immunity, said Assistant Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture Datuk Sebastian Ting.
He pointed out that the immunisation rate in Miri was still relatively low and that more vaccination programmes needed to be carried out to inoculate at least 75 percent of the Miri population.
“At a population of roughly 200,000, this will take 100 days, which is scheduled until the end of August or probably longer,” said Ting.
He suggested that more vaccinations centres be set up to speed up the vaccination process.
“We will seek the help of retired nurses, doctors and medical volunteers from clinics as well as use the services of a mobile unit for large corporations, factories and plantations, clan associations and other such organisations or institutions.
“After the vaccinations, a hybrid or upgraded manual registration will be conducted for all those who show up for vaccination and then sent to the central database of MySejahtera. This will speed up the vaccination process,” said Ting.
He added that all organisers, including the Health Ministry, clinics, local schools, manpower sources and volunteers must finish the scheduled vaccines before providing detailed time and venue information to the press, media and associations.
“This is estimated to take two weeks and once it is ready, news media as well as the social media will be provided with the time and venues for vaccination.
“This will increase the rate of vaccination to at least 8,000 people per day for the time being. It will increase to 10,000 people when the promised vaccines arrive in Miri this month and in July, reaching approximately 150,000 people in about 23 days for the first dose and another 21 days for the second dose.”
To relieve the already overburdened Miri Division Disaster Management Committee (MDDMC) and other agencies during this challenging time, Ting also proposed that a special committee be headed by Mayor Adam Yii to ensure speedy delivery of vaccines to the people of Miri.
