UNLESS Sarawak gets 430,000 doses of the Covid-19 vaccines per week, it will not achieve its aim of vaccinating 80% of its adult population by the end of August, said Douglas Uggah.

The state disaster management committee chairman and deputy chief minister said the state had requested this to the National Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF).

“Unless Putrajaya (the federal government) and the CITF give us the amount, we will not be able to reach our target,” he told reporters after attending a briefing on the progress of the vaccination drive in the coastal town of Lundu, some 53km from Kuching.

To achieve the target, Uggah said Sarawak also needs to have more than 60,000 people vaccinated daily.

That, he added, is achievable as 56,068 people were vaccinated yesterday.

According to Uggah and statistics of the Special Committee on Covid-19 Vaccine Supply (JKJAV), only 55.2% of the state’s 2.9 million people have received at least one dose of the vaccine as of yesterday.

The JKJAV statistics showed that the majority of them – 1.2 million – have only received the first dose and 326,285 had completed the required two doses.

The JKJAV statistics also showed that of the state’s adult population that are eligible to be vaccinated, 60.1% have received their first jab with only 16% completing the two jabs.

While Sarawak might lead all the other states in having the most number of people getting the first dose, it trails Selangor in completing the second dose.

Uggah said to date, the state has 313 vaccination delivery centres of all types statewide.

They include 68 public vaccination centres, 84 general practitioner clinics, 51 government clinics, 24 general hospitals, 35 industry vaccination centres, 12 private hospitals, 36 mobile centres, two AstraZeneca Centres and a university vaccination centre.

The army is also assisting in the vaccination drive by deploying their combat medical teams to the rural areas of Lawas, Miri and Kapit.

Uggah said despite the vaccination drive being a federal responsibility, the state could not sit back and rely solely on Putrajaya if the state were to achieve its August goal.

He said the state had also been pumping funds and resources into the drive. – July 6, 2021.