A syringe is filled with a dose of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine. — AFP photo
KUCHING (Oct 21): Dato Sri Dr Sim Kui Hian has called on eligible individuals to make Covid-19 booster dose appointments with the nearest government health clinic or participating general practitioner (GP) clinic to better protect themselves against the virus.
The Sarawak Disaster Management Committee advisor said around 340,000 individuals aged 60 and above, as well as high-risk and vulnerable groups ought to be administered with a booster dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
“Those who had their second dose of Pfizer-BioNTech six months ago or second dose of Sinovac three months ago should have their booster dose.
“Make your booster dose appointment with the nearest government clinic and participating GP clinics, which offer free booster doses,” he said in a Facebook post yesterday.
Dr Sim, who is Local Government and Housing Minister, suggested that the state Health Department partners with the Sarawak government to continue running Covid-19 vaccination centres with appointments made through MySejahtera.
He said this is to enable Sarawak to vaccinate as many vulnerable Sarawakians as quickly as possible.
“Now we already have vaccines in Sarawak. Let’s just do it again.”
He thanked the timely decision by the medical experts from the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA) of the Ministry of Health and Minister of Health Khairy Jamaluddin for running the booster dose programme in Sarawak.
“Sarawak is the first state having completed vaccination, hence will be the first state needing the decision for booster dose,” he explained.
He hoped the authorities will place more effort and make decisions to administer the booster dose for those presently not eligible for it.
“Together we shall overcome Covid-19!” he added.