SIBU: An opposition assemblywoman has called on Sarawak to emulate Sabah and offer people a choice when it comes to Covid-19 booster shots.
This is because a majority of 77.7 percent of the Sarawak population inoculated with the Sinovac vaccine for their first and second doses, are still reluctant and concerned about the mix and match approach for booster shots, said Bukit Assek incumbent assemblywoman, Irene Chang.
She said the Sinovac booster should therefore be made available to these people at the earliest.
“The people in Sabah have a choice of either Pfizer or Sinovac as their booster shot.
“I received this confirmation when I sighted a digital certificate of a Sabahan which showed both 1st and 2nd doses and booster dose as Sinovac vaccine.”
Chang said no matter how much data is presented to show that the mix and match policy is safe, there would be people who remain unconvinced by these data.
“And there are also people who are concerned about the long-term effects about which no data is available at this moment,” she said in a press statement issued here.
Chang who is a lawyer by profession said the number of those who have received booster shots is still low, with a majority of the elderly rejecting appointments scheduled in their MySejahtera app.
On other matter, Chang also called upon the Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) to provide an alternative arrangement for non-vaccinated persons to enter government premises, especially Urban Transformation Centre (UTC) to perform tasks or to access certain services.
Certain times or days can be set aside for them so that they can enter these premises for such purpose, she stated.
“While it is understandable that the majority of people feel more secure knowing that all those who enter the premises are also vaccinated, it is not right to continue punishing those people who, for one reason or the other, cannot or refuse to be vaccinated. This is especially when there is no legislation in the country which requires mandatory vaccination.
“It has been three months since the “no vaccination no entry” policy was imposed by the government premises like UTC.
“And since then, the target of achieving a 90 percent vaccination rate of the state population aged 18 and above has also been reached.
“It is therefore time for the government premises especially UTC to relax their policy by allowing access to everyone irrespective of their vaccination status, albeit with strict and stringent SOPs in place,” Chang added.
