Covid-19 vaccination exercise in Ba Kelalan, Sarawak on July 13, 2021.
KUALA LUMPUR (July 28): Several members of Parliament from Sabah and Sarawak today raised issues regarding the implementation of the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) which started on Feb 24.
Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin (BN-Kinabatangan) who opined that the vaccination rate in Sabah was still low with about 30,000 doses a day compared to other states, has urged the government to increase vaccine supplies to the state.
This was important to enable Sabah to increeh ase its vaccination capacity and get as many people vaccinated as possible, he said during the debate session after Coordinating Minister for the PICK Khairy Jamaluddin gave explanation on the programme at the special meeting of the Dewan Rakyat here.
Bung Moktar, who is also Sabah Deputy Chief Minister, said also raised about the need for a single-dose Covid-19 vaccine to be given to those living in rural areas, to make it easier for them as they do not have to come to vaccination centres (PPV) again for a second shot.
According to the Special Committee on Covid-19 Vaccine Supply Access Guarantee website, a total of 701,759 or 18 per cent of Sabahans and 1,678,014 or 59.6 per cent of Sarawakians had received their first dose of the vaccine, as of yesterday.
Raising the same issue was Datuk Mohd Azis Jamman (Warisan-Sepanggar) who said the low vaccination rate in Sabah has resulted in several PPVs in the state being under utilised.
He also questioned why the government did not apply the same health measures implemented in Labuan by providing vaccines without the people having to wait for an appointment through the MySejahtera application.
Such measures have proven to be able to increase the vaccination rate on the island which previously faced a sharp increase in Covid-19 cases, he added.
Lukanisman Awang Sauni (GPS-Sibuti) suggested that the ‘vaccinate first, register later’ method used in Sarawak also be used in Sabah given the similar demographics between the two states.
Meanwhile, Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal (Warisan-Semporna) raised the issue of unequitable vaccine distribution in Sabah which has 3.9 million population.
The former Sabah chief minister also suggested the government to implement the walk-in vaccination initiative in the state.
Khairy, when winding up the debate session reiterated his assurance that Sabah would be given priority as one of the earliest states to receive the CanSino Covid-19 vaccine once Malaysia received the supply. – Bernama