KUCHING, April 11 — Sarawak Pakatan Harapan (PH) wants the state government to purchase its own Covid-19 vaccines instead of relying on the federal government in view of the state’s daily high cases.
Its chairman Chong Chieng Jen pointed out that Sarawak ranked among the country’s top three out of 16 states and territories in the past one month, adding that there seems to be no sign of an improvement in the weeks ahead.
“This is despite the more stringent standard operating procedures (SOP) on quarantine, movement control and border control measures imposed by the Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) than those imposed by the federal Ministry of Health (MOH) in terms of the pandemic management.
“While the so-called more relaxed SOP-states are now registering a decline in new infection cases, the more stringent SOP-Sarawak is having higher new infection cases,” he said in a statement today.
Chong urged Chief Minister Datuk Abang Johari Openg to “walk the talk” to purchase the vaccine for all Sarawakians, saying senior state officials have been saying so since February.
“This is the most welcomed announcement for all. But, almost two months have passed and yet the state government is still talking about asking for more vaccine quota from the federal government,” the Sarawak DAP chairman said.
He said that the sooner the vaccination programme rolls out, the sooner Sarawak can fully resume its economic activities.
He added that the DAP is willing to help the state government register Sarawakians for the vaccination programme.
