SEVEN private hospitals and 42 private general practitioner (GP) clinics in Sarawak have so far been approved to be a Covid-19 vaccination centres. 

Five started administering the vaccination yesterday, the state’s Housing and Local Government Minister Dr Sim Hui Kian said. 

Three of the hospitals are in Kuching, one in Sibu and the other in Miri. 

They have signed up with the Health Ministry’s wholly owned ProtectHealth Corp programme to assist the government get as many people vaccinated as quickly as possible. 

The vaccines used are Pfizer or Sinovac. 

The vaccination is free and the recipients are picked via their MySejahtera registration. 

The hospitals are paid RM14 per vaccination by ProtectHealth. 

Sim, an adviser to the state disaster management committee, said the hospitals and clinics for a start will have to 800 vaccinations per day. 

“Hope that after the initial start, all the private hospitals and GPs (clinics) can scale up to vaccinate as many Sarawakians as fast as possible from next month onwards in view of substantial increase in doses of the Covid-19 vaccines.” 

Sim also said in view of the spike in new cases, the MoH centres could number more than 250 next month. 

Sarawak is targeting to have 1.2 million people in the state, including 200,000 foreign residents, vaccinated against the infection that has killed 261 to date. – May 26, 2021.