File photo shows AZ vaccine recipients awaiting their turn at the BCCK vaccination centre.
KUCHING (June 22): The vaccination centre (PPV) at Borneo Convention Center Kuching (BCCK) will start administering Sinovac and Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccines from today (June 22).
Local Government and Housing Minister Dato Sri Dr Sim Kui Hian shared on Facebook today that the BCCK PPV, which has been the venue for AstraZeneca (AZ) vaccine inoculation since June 7, will be assisting the Covid-19 National Vaccination Programme (PICK) for recipients in Kuching via MySejahtera.
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In his Facebook post, Dr Sim said this was because the PPV at BCCK had completed the first dose vaccination of recipients who had opted to receive AZ.
The interval for the second dose of AZ is 12 weeks although there have been reports that the government is studying whether this could be shortened to six weeks.
“(The PPV at BCCK) will be additional to the (other PPVs such as) Stadium (Perpaduan Negeri), KK (health clinics), Sarawak General Hospital Auditorium, and Kozi Square, private hospitals, GP (general practitioner) clinics, and Universiti Malaysia Sarawak,” said Dr Sim, who is also State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) advisor.
On Friday (June 18), Sarawak received another 350,000 doses of Sinovac vaccine under PICK.
Two days prior to that, the state also received 44,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine.
Sarawak aims to accelerate vaccination to ensure at least 80 per cent of the state’s population is vaccinated by August.
Last month, PICK coordinating minister Khairy Jamaluddin said Sarawak would receive 380,000 doses of vaccines every week from June till August.
BCCK and the National Youth Skills Institute (IKBN) in Miri are the two venues in the state to administer the AZ vaccine.
On May 17, the state agreed to make the AZ vaccine available on a voluntary basis after initially deciding against it due to public concerns over its side effects.