Dr Sim (left) speaking during the Facebook live session that was attended by Ting (from top to bottom), Wee, Yii and Lo.
KUCHING (March 13): The federal government has agreed on principle to vaccinate people residing in interior villages all at once irrespective of their categories under the country’s vaccination programme, said Sarawak Minister of Local Government and Housing Dato Sri Dr Sim Kui Hian.
Dr Sim said the agreement was given by the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme coordinating minister Khairy Jamaluddin as it would be very challenging if the vaccination programme was to be carried out in these interior areas in phases due to logistic factors.
“Also, according to the data we gathered, only about 40 to 50 per cent of those aged 18 years old and above have registered for the vaccination programme. Many more people need to be registered in order for the state to achieve herd immunity,” he said during a Facebook live session hosted by Kuching South City Council mayor Dato Wee Hong Seng today.
Dr Sim pointed out almost all of those aged 18-years-old and above need to be inoculated in order for the state to be able to vaccinate 70 per cent of its population and achieve herd immunity.
The state Covid-19 vaccination exercise is divided into three phases, with the first phase prioritising frontliners battling the outbreak, second phase targetting elderly and high-risk groups and lastly, the third phase is for individuals who are 18-years-old and above.
Moreover, Dr Sim said the state government had requested the Ministry of Health to allocate more vaccine doses to Covid-19 red zone areas in the state, including Kapit, Sibu and Bintulu, to bring the outbreak under control.
“Coincidentally, this date last year is also when the state reported its first case of Covid-19. I appeal to the people to be a little more patient as we have reached the end stage of the pandemic with vaccines being available and together, we can overcome this health crisis.”
He pointed out that the state had recorded over 10,000 positive cases since the beginning of the year, with 70 fatalities, and it was a drastic increase compared with last year.
Furthermore, Dr Sim said the state government had set aside a sum of money to purchase its own vaccines if necessary, while he also lambasted irresponsible individuals who were found to be counterfeiting their own rT-PCR test result documents to enter the state.
On a separate matter, Dr Sim said he had instructed the State Attorney-General to study the Emergency Ordinance in regard of the scanning of MySejahtera code upon entering a premise or risk being issued up to a maximum of RM10,000 compound.
This was because the state also utilises other location tracking mobile applications for the public, such as COVIDTrace and Qmunity.
“I will talk to the state police commissioner Datuk Aidi Ismail to avoid taking action against users of COVIDTrace and Qmunity until the State Attorney-General has finished looking into the matter,” said Dr Sim.
He added that a meeting will be held between Unit for Other Religions (Unifor), Chinese associations, religious bodies and other stakeholder regarding the upcoming Qing Ming Festival.
Among those who attended the Facebook live session was Padawan Municipal Council chairman Lo Khere Chiang, Sibu Municipal Council chairman Clarence Ting and Miri City Council mayor Adam Yii.