BAU:The single-dose CanSino vaccine is due to arrive in Sarawak between mid to late July, said Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah.
He added that the state was looking forward to receiving the supplies provided by the federal government in order to speed up the vaccination process, particularly in the rural areas.
Asked whether the federal government should allow the state to advance into phase two and so forth of the National Recovery Plan, he said the state government would leave the decision to the National Security Council (NSC) based on the state threshold values.
“We would like to request the federal government to assess Sarawak based on each Covid-19 district condition and performance rather than the state as a whole.
“Given the size of Sarawak, which is larger than Peninsular Malaysia, we have the Limbang district that can match the NSC assessment benchmark,” he told the media after visiting the vaccination centre at the state Fire and Rescue Department Academy here.
Uggah added that Sarawak was extremely committed to ensuring the success of the last leg of its Covid-19 vaccination programme.
Although referring it as ‘quite a tall order’, Uggah, who is also the State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) chairman, was confident that Sarawak would meet its target of vaccinating its 2.2 million eligible people by the end of August.
He said in this last leg, the state hoped to ramp up its vaccination to 70,000 doses per day in the upcoming weeks.
“We had even achieved 65,000 doses per day but yesterday, we only administered 47,679 doses. We are going to increase to 60,000 doses per day so we really have to catch up.
“As of yesterday (July 3), we have successfully vaccinated a cumulative total of 1.456,831 million.
“They comprised 1.178,303 million recipients for their first dose and 278,528 for their second dose.”
Uggah explained there would be the constant fine tunings to the existing mechanisms to make them more efficient and effective.
He stated that the state had set up vaccination centres at many hospitals and clinics, industrial and private hospitals and clinics.
“We have mobile teams to reach out into the interior and we are also well assisted by the military combat medic teams.”
Uggah said these showed a very strong sense of commitment, sacrifice and support from all the frontliners, the health department, the SDMC, the state administration as well as support from the people and the non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
Earlier on, during the visit, he was briefed on the vaccination progress by Bau District Officer Anielia Siam.
She said 29, 373 eligible people or 61.4 percent of the population in the district had been vaccinated.
Deputy Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities Datuk Willie Mongin, Tasik Biru assemblyman Datuk Henry Jinep, Serembu assemblyman Miro Simuh, Deputy State Secretary Datuk Ik Pahon and Kuching Division Health Officer Dr Eunice Melissa John were among those present.
