Dr Rose Nani (front row, second left) with the team responsible for the Mega PPV SICC.
KOTA KINABALU (Nov 30): More than half a million non-Malaysians, including those without documents, have been vaccinated against Covid-19 in Sabah as of October 2021.
State Health Director Datuk Dr Rose Nani Mudin disclosed this in a press conference on Tuesday after an appreciation lunch in conjunction with the closing of Sabah International Convention Centre (SICC) Mega PPV (vaccination centre).
“According to our data, a total of 595,483 non-Malaysians from various countries have been vaccinated as of Oct 30, including undocumented.
“I don’t have the exact number of undocumented, as we need to do data mining for this. It is a lot of work, more than 500,000,” she added.
Dr Rose Nani encouraged all eligible recipients to get their booster shot, especially those over 40 years old and with comorbid.
“However, if you are frontliners who are meeting a lot of people you are also encouraged to get a booster dose.
“Booster shots have been scheduled for three or six months after second dose because this is the time where the production of antibody at maximum, and getting a booster would give extra protection. That is why we called it booster,” she said.
Currently 77 per cent of Sabah’s adult population have received the first dose of Covid-19 vaccine while 75 per cent completed their doses.
However, Dr Rose Nani said the percentage is expected to change soon, as the Department of Statistics Malaysia just completed its census and there will be an updated denominator.
The current denominator, she said, is using the 2010 estimation.
“We will calculate again after the announcement of the Department of Statistics Malaysia.
“We are expecting the denominator to become smaller, and the percentage of vaccination will go up,” she said.