KOTA KINABALU, June 1 — Putrajaya should allow Sabah to buy its own Covid-19 vaccines, the state Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin said today.

He complained that the vaccination rate in Sabah that is being handled by the federal government is currently too slow.

He said roughly 130,000 of the estimated 2.9 million targeted population in the state have received the vaccinations to date. The state has an estimated population 3.89 million people.

“Many Sabahans are still vulnerable to the infection now as the vaccination rate is too slow.

Advertisement

He said that Khairy Jamaluddin, the coordinating minister in charge of Covid-19 National Immunisation Programme, should consider allowing Sabah to purchase the Covid-19 vaccines directly from local pharmaceutical company Pharmaniaga to speed up the inoculation process.

“The people of Sabah need vaccines. Why are we in Sabah denied our rights, we have the right to demand the vaccine, we are ready to pay for it, we are not asking for free,” he said.

He added that the state-owned Warisan Harta would allow the vaccines to be sold to private clinics among others.

Advertisement

“This way we can let both the private sector and the government immunisation programme to move simultaneously and swiftly in the state,” he said.

Bung said neighbouring countries like the Philippines and Thailand have allowed private sales of the vaccine in order to expedite the process to its people.

“Why are we in Malaysia so slow? Many leaders are talking about Covid 19 but they are just talking and not thinking about the people’s problems.

“Countries in Europe, US, China, they are going all out to provide the vaccine to as many people as possible but in Malaysia, we have MySejahtera, but that is not running efficiently,” he said.

“The point is to get as many of their citizens vaccinated as soon as possible,” he said.

Bung told reporters that the state government through Warisan Harta had applied to buy 300,000 doses of the vaccine that would be sold to private clinics among others in efforts to carry out the vaccination drive.

Bung said that the current lockdown was a good move to curb further spreading of Covid 19 but that it must also be followed by speeding up of the vaccination programmes.