Chong Chieng Jen
KUCHING (June 3): The Sarawak government should make public the detailed plan to expedite the low-moving Covid-19 vaccination programme in the state, says Democratic Action Party (DAP) Sarawak chairman Chong Chieng Jen.
He also said the state government should set in motion plan to engage private clinics and hospitals in taking a more active role in administering the Covid-19 vaccine in the state.
“So far, after three months of the state’s vaccination programme since Feb 27, only 194,936 people have received at least the first dose and 111,176 have received the second dose,” said Chong in a statement.
He said the number of doses administered in May was 155,602, averaging 5,000 doses a day in the state, with the exception of a single-day 14,302 doses administered on May 29.
Chong said the state government had to triple the number of teams and venues for vaccination to achieve the 50,000 doses administered per day, as targeted by Minister of Local Government and Housing Dato Sri Dr Sim Kui Hian.
He added that 1,239,586 Sarawakians had registered for the vaccination but only 194,936 have received at least their first dose as of June 1.
“Many who have registered since February are still waiting for their vaccination.”
Chong said it was, therefore, most unwarranted for Dr Sim to complain that people were not keen to register, when more than 80 per cent of those who had were still waiting for their vaccination appointment dates.
Moreover, Chong said the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme coordinating minister Khairy Jamaluddin had previously announced there would be 380,000 doses of vaccine to be supplied to Sarawak per week.
“When will they start to arrive in Sarawak?
“What will be the targeted number of vaccinations for each and every vaccination centres in Sarawak be once the vaccines have arrived?”
Chong also asked how many private clinics in the state had been roped in for the vaccination exercise.
“Who are these private clinics and how many doses will each of these clinics do a day?”
He also questioned what other measures the state government would be taking to achieve the targeted vaccination rate of 50,000 per day, about 10 times the average vaccination rate in May.
“The government must realise that the current pace of vaccination is far too slow.”
Chong said the Sarawak and the country as a whole seemed to be going from bad to worse in the vaccination programme, when people’s life in countries like United Kingdom and United States were slowly moving back to normal with their successful vaccination programme.
“Therefore, unless some drastic and more effective actions are taken, at the current rate of vaccination, we will not be able to hit the herd immunity target even by end of this year, and we will probably be stuck with these MCOs, RMCOs or FMCOs for another few months.”
from Borneo Post Online https://bit.ly/2SQaPKj
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