WITH Covid-19 vaccine supplies arriving, Sarawak is aiming to speed up its vaccination drive to reach its target of inoculating 2.1 million people by the end of August.

State Housing and Local Government Minister Dr Sim Kui Hian said the state had been allocated only 380,864 doses of Covid-19 vaccines in the last three-and-a-half months since the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme began on February 26.

At the end of last week, 77,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine arrived, in time for the voluntary opt-in programme, which started last Monday.

A shipment of 38,400 doses of the Sinovac vaccine and 65, 529 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech also arrived on Wednesday.

“With (a) substantial amount of vaccines available every week till August, over the next few days as planned, (it) is time to scale up fast on the vaccination process,” Dr Sim said in a statement on Facebook.

To ramp up the vaccination process, the adviser to the state disaster management committee said more mega vaccination centres will be opened in other parts of the state.

The first of these mega Covid-19 vaccination centres (PPV), the Borneo Convention Centre in Kuching (BCCK), became operational last Monday while the second at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) will be operational in a few days’ time, he said.

The BCCK PPV is able administer up to 3,000 vaccinations per day.

Dr Sim also said the number of private hospitals, participating as private vaccination centres, will increase to 12 from the current five.

The number of private clinics participating will also increase from the current 36 to “more than 100”, while more health clinics and government hospitals will scale up their daily vaccination numbers and more outreach mobile teams will be sent to interiors areas.

The mobile teams operate on the policy of vaccinating first, register later – when the team reaches areas without internet connection. 

Dr Sim said some industries, such the oil palm sector, will be rolling out their vaccination centres on their plantations “whenever they are ready”.

This, he said, is due to the inter-district travel ban and will enable workers and families in the same compound to be vaccinated without having to travel.

The ramp up would be done in the next few days and weeks.

What concerns Dr Sim most is the rate of registration. 

He said although Sarawak is the state with the third highest in registration, it translated to 61.5% of all the eligible individuals, or 1,255,948 out of the state’s 2,072,000 population.

Pushing the mobile vaccination teams out in haste has also highlighted some shortcomings.

Senator Robert Lau Hui Yew, who today accompanied a team to vaccinate 500 people at the Bawang Assan community hall in rural Sibu, said the team had to register recipients manually, as they did not have a laptop.

“I lent them one unit,” Lau wrote on his Facebook. 

“The team needs laptops to speed up the (registration) process. They need a few more units,” he added, and appealed to folk in Sibu who have spare laptops to lend theirs to the team “for the next one month”.

Lau described the residents’ response to the team as “enthusiastic”.

“Many turned up even though their names were not on the list,” he said. – June 12, 2021.