KUCHING, March 18 — Sarawak has crossed the halfway point in its aim to vaccinate some 2.2 million people with the Covid-19 vaccine, the State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) revealed today.

It said in its Covid-19 daily update that as of 8am today, 1,223,080 people have registered for the vaccination programme throughout the state.

"Of that figure, a total of 788,012 individuals had registered with the Divisional Residens’ office and 435,068 via the MySejahtera (smartphone) application,” the committee said.

The vaccination programme was rolled out in Sarawak on February 26, with Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg among the first to be administered the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine.

The state is currently in the first phase of the vaccination programme for frontliners, and it aims to launch the second and third phases simultaneously next month for the elderly, those with comorbidities and those above 18 years old, including foreign residents.

Sarawak hopes to complete the vaccination programme in August this year, well ahead of the Federal government’s plan which was yesterday revised from the first quarter of next year to the end of this year.

On Sunday, Local Government and Housing Minister Dato Sri Dr Sim Kui Hian, in revealing that about a million Sarawakians had registered for the vaccination, said the state needs a minimum of 70 per cent of Sarawakians to be vaccinated.

He said with vaccines indicated only for those above 18 years old, this meant that 99 per cent of Sarawakians above 18 are to be vaccinated to achieve herd immunity.

"We want to be vaccinated as fast as possible and as many as possible not just to decrease our daily cases but also to prevent Covid-19 mutation into variants,” he said. — Borneo Post