KOTA KINABALU, July 22 — As the vaccination programme here ramps up, new Sabah health director Dr Rose Nani Mudin said the state is on track to achieve its target of 40,000 Covid-19 vaccinations per day by this week.
She said this after the state surpassed the 30,000-dose mark yesterday, thanks to more vaccine supplies to its vaccination centres.
“We are now re-strategising the flow at vaccine centres, and how do we distribute vaccines properly to places like high density areas,” she said.
She added that while there was some delay with delivery, there was still a steady supply coming into the state.
“What we need to do now is convince those who refused to get registered for vaccines,” she said when speaking to reporters during a visit by Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor to Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) PPV here today.
She was asked about Sabah’s position as the state with the lowest vaccinations administered.
On suggestions to allow walk-in registrations and vaccinations, she said that the mobile outreach programme was already doing so in rural areas.
“We also need to remember, there are those who registered via MySejahtera app who have yet to receive their appointment and vaccination, so before we can consider the walk-in approach, we need to clear this list first.
“At the same time, we also need to give priority to senior citizens who walk-in and do not know how to use the MySejahtera app,” she said.
Meanwhile, Hajiji said that he hoped the federal government would increase the supply to the state so that the state can achieve its target of 60 per cent of Sabahans immunised by this October.
Asked whether the Sabah government plans to buy its own vaccines following the announcement that 14 million of Sinovac vaccine doses will be available for sale to interested states and companies, Hajiji said that the state will be relying on the vaccine provided by the federal government.
“Actually, we need about 2.7 million of Sabah’s population to be vaccinated to reach herd immunity. We hope the federal government and Health Ministry will accommodate this,” he added.
Sabah Covid-19 spokesman Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun previously said that the state would receive over one million vaccine doses in July.
To date, the total number of vaccines received in July was 747,980 doses, another delivery of 30,000 expected tomorrow and the next 308,880 doses bulk delivery is scheduled to arrive on July 28.
Sabah has so far vaccinated 13.5 per cent or 367,851 people.
