SARAWAK spent RM300 million to manage the Covid epidemic throughout the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme, Deputy Premier Douglas Uggah said.

He said these included expenditure on support services like transporting vaccines to rural and interior areas, financing Covid quarantine and treatment centres, and conducting swab tests.

“In September 2021, Sarawak registered up to 5,000 cases a day. For every positive case, we needed to test 10 close contacts, with the cost of swab tests borne by us,” he told reporters after an event in Kuching last night.

About 1,000 frontline workers from various government agencies in central Sarawak attended the event.

Uggah, who is Sarawak disaster management committee chairman, said the take-up rate for the second booster shot was still low in Sarawak.

“So far only 7.1% of those eligible have taken the second booster. This is very low. We ask those who have yet to receive it to do so immediately,” he added. – Bernama, August 28, 2022.