(From left) Miri Mayor Adam Yii, Ting, Lukanisman and Fr Kevin Chundi gather for a group photo during the elected representatives’ visit to St Dominic Church at Taman Tunku.
MIRI (June 13): Three locations here have been identified as having the potential of being turned into vaccination centres (PPVs).
The listed places are St Dominic Church in Taman Tunku, SM Pei Min at Jalan Jee Foh 4, and Curtin University Malaysia Campus in Senadin.
Sibuti MP Lukanisman Awang Sauni said the key objective was to have these places become the PPVs catering for the sub-urban communities.
“Taman Tunku, which is situated between Sibuti and Miri city, has the biggest population.
“Residents of a sub-urban area like Taman Tunku would have to travel very far to Miri Hospital, Eastwood Valley or Dato Permaisuri Community Hall in Permyjaya (where the existing PPVs are located at), which is challenging for them.
“We observe that the St Dominic Church has a huge space, able to fit in 600 to 700 vaccine recipients a day.
It would make an ideal place to cater for residents in Taman Tunku, Taman Jelita, Kampung Lusut and Lambir,” said the parliamentarian, who inspected the three locations yesterday together with Assistant Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture Sarawak, Datuk Sebastian Ting.
For his area Sibuti, Lukanisman highlighted the need to open more PPVs to increase the vaccination rate.
“By increasing the capacity, we can increase the vaccination rate; therefore, more lives could be potentially saved,” he said, hoping that the proposal to open more PPVs here would receive the greenlight from the Ministry of Health (MoH) and Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC).
In his remarks, Ting viewed the proposed establishment of more PPVs as ‘a huge step forward in protecting the people from Covid-19’.
“Currently, PPV Eastwood Valley and PPV Dato Permaisuri can each accommodate 1,000 vaccine recipients a day, Miri Hospital can fit 400 people, while Borneo Medical Centre and Columbia Asia can each cater for 100 recipients per day.
“If we’re to add up all the PPVs (including the private clinics), we’re looking at recording 2,600 vaccine recipients a day.
“It is crucial to increase the number of PPVs as a way to expedite the vaccination programme,” said Ting, who is Piasau assemblyman.
Adding on, he believed that other options such as walk-in / drive-thru vaccination or hybrid approach (getting the vaccine first and registering for it later) should also be explored.