Frontliners from Tanah Puteh Health Clinic attend to those coming for vaccination at SJKC Chung Hua Pending. — Photo by Roystein Emmor
KUCHING (July 5): Sarawak now aims to administer between 60,000 to 65,000 Covid-19 vaccine jabs daily towards achieving herd immunity by the second week of August this year.
In stating this, newly-appointed Health Department Sarawak director Dato Dr Mohamed Sapian Mohamed said the state had already recorded the administration of 1.5 million doses of the vaccine.
“Putting this figure against the entire adult population of about 2.2 million, it indicates that 10 per cent of the adult population in Sarawak have been fully vaccinated or injected with the two doses,” he said when met at SJKC Chung Hua Pending here yesterday, where a vaccination drive was conducted by a team from Tanah Puteh Health Clinic.
(Standing, from right) Dr Mohamed Sapian, Dr Sim and Wee watch a nurse administering a vaccine shot on a woman during the vaccination drive at SJKC Chung Hua Pending. — Photo by Roystein Emmor
Local Government and Housing Minister Dato Sri Dr Sim Kui Hian and Kuching South Mayor Dato Wee Hong Seng were also present.
According to Dr Mohamed Sapian, the state now has two main tasks – the focus on the vaccination drive, and contact-tracing for positive Covid-19 cases.
Adding on, he said the frontliners assigned to vaccination centres (PPVs) would be relocated for Covid-19 prevention activities once the majority of the population had been vaccinated.
“I hope the people in Sarawak would continue to observe the SOP (standard operating procedures) even after being vaccinated to avoid any more outbreaks in the state.”
(Front, from left) Dr Mohamed Sapian speaks to reporters, as Dr Sim and others look on. — Photo by Roystein Emmor
In this regard, he thanked the State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC), volunteers, as well as medical and healthcare professionals such as doctors and nurses – some of whom had even come out of retirement to support Sarawak’s vaccination drive.
Dr Mohamed Sapian also remarked that there were sufficient personnel from the Ministry of Health to handle the vaccination programme and other Covid-19 related tasks, but it was also encouraging to know that they had strong back-up from the volunteers and staff members from other government’s departments and agencies.
For the record, there are 285 PPVs across Sarawak, but this figure excludes the mobile vaccination units.