KUCHING, May 20 — Sarawak Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah today expressed hope that there will be no repeat of the queue jumping at the Covid-19 vaccination centre at the State Indoor Stadium, which went viral on social media.
He said he has been assured by the centre’s management that people will be made to queue in a systematic manner for their vaccinations.
“With this in place, we hope that what happened a few days ago will not re-occur. We apologise for what happened,” Uggah told reporters after visiting the centre this morning.
He, however, declined to comment further on the complaints on social media of VVIPs allegedly using the lane meant for people with disabilities (OKU) yesterday.
“Enough. So much (has been said) on social media. But I am pleased to see this morning that a system is in place,” Uggah, who is also the state Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) chairman, said.
He said the centre, which has only been operating for a few days, has been a big headache for SDMC.
“I got a message from National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (NCIP) coordinating minister Khairy Jamaluddin telling me that our place was jam-packed and with no social distancing.
“So we decided to improve and you can see the improvements that we have made. I am very happy with the improvements,” he said.
“We have a very systematic way for the public to come in. They know where to go, and then the flow inside is very smooth. There is no issue of lax social distancing anymore,” Uggah said.
He said the centre at the indoor stadium will be used as a model for other vaccination centres in Sarawak.
He added more of such centres will be set up in Kuching at a later date to enable SDMC to meet its vaccination target.
He said the centre at the indoor stadium can only vaccinate 1,600 persons per day and the number will be pushed up to 2,500 persons per day in due course.
“Our operating hours are from 8am to 5pm and when more vaccines are received later, we will extend the time in order to get more people vaccinated,” he said, declining to name the vaccine, which is believed to be Sinovac from China.
He said SDMC is targeting to vaccinate 550,000 people in Kuching alone.
“So we will make sure that we can cope with the number and increase our vaccination centres,” he said.
