KOTA KINABALU: Healthcare frontliners in Sabah are in high spirits today as they welcome the arrival of Covid-19 vaccine in the state.
Being the first batch to receive the vaccine soon, the frontliners interviewed by Bernama today were mostly excited and looking forward to the immunisation programme.
A nurse at Beaufort Dental Clinic, Siti Jamilah Jukim, 35, said she felt nervous and thrilled to be among the earliest people to get the jab.
“The vaccination programme is one of the government’s efforts in controlling the spread of Covid-19.
Therefore, those who are eligible should willingly be vaccinated in order to protect us from the virus,” she told Bernama here, today.
Equally elated was Nadirah Sulaiman, 35, an officer at the Clinical Research Centre, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, who said that although it was undeniable that all medicines tend to have its own side effects, she believed more on the upside of the vaccine rather than to worry about any minor side effects.
“Yes, I am quite worried about the side effects as it is a new type of vaccine, but I am happy to get the chance to be in the first batch of the vaccination programme,” she added.
Meanwhile, a nurse at Kota Kinabalu Women and Children’s Hospital, Erra Tiffany, 28, said she had high hopes that the Covid-19 vaccine could curb the spread of the virus for the world to get back to some semblance of normalcy.
Sabah today received 16,380 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to kickstart the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme in the state which will be implemented soon.
Chief Minister Datuk Hajiji Noor is scheduled to officiate the immunisation programme and receive the vaccine on March 4.
The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme is being implemented in three phases with Phase 1 from February to April 2021 for frontline workers involving 500,000 people.
The second phase of the programme will run from April to August, involving senior citizens aged 60 and above as well as vulnerable groups with morbidity issues and persons with disabilities, while the third phase is scheduled from May this year to February 2022 for all those aged 18 and above not vaccinated before. – Bernama