KUALA LUMPUR, June 6 — Fear of vaccination is not the main reason why Sabah ranks last in registering for the Covid-19 immunisation programme, according to Parti Warisan Sabah vice-president Datuk Junz Wong.

The Tanjung Aru assemblyman attributed the low registration rate at only 19.67 per cent and the low numbers of people who have received their jabs (5.55 per cent) to the lack of vaccines and poor access to the internet in Sabah.

"On the part of Warisan, we are doing our best to create awareness through Facebook Live forums and so forth. But we can only reach Sabahans in the city who have internet access. And most of these Sabahans have already registered through MySejahtera.

"What about Sabahans in the rural areas without internet connection? We want to reach out to them too. But we cannot move around due to the lockdown restrictions,” he said in a statement today.

He claimed that some of those in Sabah who have registered for vaccination through the MySejahtera app as early as March are still waiting for appointments to be given after three months.

"For the benefit and sake of Sabahans, GRS must start asking for more vaccines from KL. GRS is after all aligned to the Federal Government. Can’t the GRS leaders whisper in the ears of the PM?” he asked, referring to the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah coalition ruling the state.

Wong reminded the state government that Sabahans were promised that they would be treated as equal to their counterparts in the peninsula during last year’s state election campaign.

However, he said the current situation suggests otherwise.

GRS succeeded in wresting the state from the Warisan Plus coalition in September 2020. The elections were said to have caused the second wave of infections that caused the state to be put under lockdown.