TRANSPORTING the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine to Sarawak’s remote areas is still a major concern for state authorities despite Health Minister Dr Adham Baba’s claims of successfully doing so after one dry run, Deputy Chief Minister Douglas Uggah said.

Uggah said the challenge is in getting the vaccine within five hours to remote areas where transportation networks are almost non-existent.

Working out the logistics within the allotted time, and ensuring the vaccines are still good to be used, are the biggest headaches, Uggah said in an interview on the Twenty30 programme aired over TV Sarawak last night.

Adham had hailed as successful a dry run last month to transport the vaccine to a clinic in the remote town of Belaga in Kapit division.

Getting to Belaga is, however, relatively easy. It is only 178km from the LNG town of Bintulu and can be reached by the road built for the Bakun and Murum dams in four hours.

The Pfizer vaccine requires storage in ultra-deep freezers of minus 75 degrees centigrade. Once taken out of the deep freezers, the vaccine only has a life span of five hours in the normal freezers that will be used for transportation.

Uggah, who also chairs the state disaster management committee, said getting the vaccines from one of seven of the ultra-deep freezers in the state to its intended destinations within five hours is something they have been working on meticulously since the government announced the roll out of the mass vaccination programme.

The disaster management committee at divisional levels have been directed to draw up logistical solutions that suit their areas best.

“What type of transportation should be (used) so the vaccines reach the targeted villages or settlement(s) well with(in) the five hours allotted time.”

Uggah said the manpower requirement in transporting the vaccine is “big”.

He also said his disaster committee has been studying the problems other countries have encountered in the roll out of their programmes, so as to cut short the waiting time to receive the jab and to provide a comfortable waiting space for recipients.

The January 20 dry run to Belaga, which Dr Adham declared a success, was a joint effort between his ministry, the state disaster management committee, the Armed Forces, and Pfizer Malaysia.

Belaga is the last major town on the upper reaches of the Rajang River.

Getting to settlements deeper in the interior and in the mountainous highlands along the Sarawak–Kalimantan border where there are no roads is an entirely different proposition altogether.

Travel on treacherous logging roads hacked into the jungle, going by river and trekking on foot are the norm.

Sarawak has targeted to have 2.1 million of its people and another 200,000 foreign residents, mostly workers, to receive the injection. – February 23, 2021.