Sarawak vaccine rollout to be speeded up to ensure safe state election

 

The Covid-19 vaccination programme in Sarawak will be accelerated to ensure state elections can be held safely if the emergency is lifted on Aug 1.

At a press conference broadcast from Kuching this evening, minister-in-charge Khairy Jamaluddin announced a slew of measures that would help raise the average vaccination rates in the state to 45,000 jabs per day.

This would ensure the East Malaysian state achieves its adult vaccination target by the end of August.

“I hope with the assurance that I am giving to Sarawak today, we will see Sarawak hit its target by the end of August and be the first state to complete the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (NIP),” Khairy said.

Asked if there was a political motive behind the federal government’s move to prioritise Sarawak ahead of Selangor - the epicentre of the current Covid-19 wave - the minister refuted this.

Khairy stressed that it was for public health and legal factors and that Sarawak needed to be safe for state elections to be held.

“If the emergency ends on Aug 1 and that is the indicative time frame of the emergency, then Sarawak will have to have state elections (within 60 days).

“I don't know if you remember what happened during the Sabah state election. If the state of Sarawak is not fully vaccinated by the time they have the state elections, then not only the state of Sarawak but the entire country of Malaysia is at risk of another wave. And we cannot afford that.

“So it's not a political matter or preference, (but) rather it's a legal requirement for Sarawak to have its elections 60 days after the emergency is lifted,” he explained.

As for the date of the state election, Sarawak deputy chief minister Douglas Uggah Embas told the media that this was the Election Commission’s (EC) prerogative.

“If the emergency ends Aug 1, that means our term also ends. From there, we will leave it to the EC to decide when is the election,” he said, 

Khairy gave his assurance that this acceleration will not compromise Covid-19 vaccine rollouts in other states.

“Our commitment to the Sarawak state government does not in any way take away from any vaccines that we plan to deliver to the other states.

“And I can give my assurance to the people in the Klang Valley that we will also be picking up the pace of vaccinations in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur, especially in Selangor, which is ground zero for Covid-19 infections right now,” he stressed.

More vaccination centres

Khairy announced that more vaccine administration centres (PPVs) will be set up in Sarawak.

This includes setting up “Industry PPVs” at factories and roping in 16 more private general practitioners (GP) clinics as well as two more private hospitals for the state-level NIP.

This means a total of 39 private GP clinics and seven private hospitals will be involved.

Meanwhile, “mobile outreach teams” will also be launched to assist those living in rural areas and longhouses to register for Covid-19 vaccines.

“I have also instructed that Sarawak practice a ‘hybrid’ registration system where some registrations will be done through MySejahtera while some will be done manually by the residents here in Sarawak.

“This will speed up the registration process for those in rural areas who do not have (electronic) devices and Internet,” Khairy said.

Sarawak not buying Sinovac anymore

The minister assured that the federal government would be able to supply all 4.4 million vaccine doses to Sarawak by the end of August, enough for the state’s 2.2 million adults.

Beginning in June, 380,000 doses will be delivered to the state every week.

Asked if Sarawak will proceed with its initial plan to purchase 500,000 Sinovac doses from Pharmaniaga, Douglas said that plan was on hold as the state had enough supply from Putrajaya.

“At the moment, we will take the word of our minister (Khairy) that he will give us all that we require,” he said.

Last week, Sarawak chief minister Abang Johari Abang Openg reportedly said that Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin had approved Sarawak buying half a million doses of the Sinovac vaccine from the government-linked company to speed up its vaccination process.  - Mkini