Sabah could be worst-hit state with low vaccination rate, warns ex-minister

 

Sabah has the lowest vaccination rate in the country with 53.3% of the adult population given one dose and 31.4% fully vaccinated. (Bernama pic)

KOTA KINABALU: Warisan deputy president Darell Leiking warns that Sabah’s low vaccination rate and worsening Covid-19 daily infections could eventually make it the worst-hit state in the country.

“The low vaccination rate and current infection trend could possibly lead to Sabah overtaking Selangor in terms of Covid-19 deaths,” the former international trade and industry minister said in a statement here today.

“More so when we continue to register a rise in the number of new cases daily and the sorry state of Sabah’s healthcare facilities which have been badly neglected for many decades.”

There have been 952 deaths reported in Sabah so far, including 17 in the last 24 hours. The highest number of deaths for a single day was 28, on Aug 12. Selangor, in comparison, has reported more than 5,100 deaths so far.

A total of 3,376 new cases were reported over the past 24 hours, which is 902 more cases than yesterday. This is also a new record high for Sabah and the first time the number of new Covid-19 cases breached the 3,000 mark.

It also brings the total number of new cases between July 30 and today to 45,186. The cumulative number of cases in the state now stands at 127,806. More than 10%, or 13,877 of these new cases were reported in the last five days alone.

Meanwhile, as of yesterday, 53.3% of Sabah’s adult population had received at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine while 31.4% were fully vaccinated. However, this is still the lowest vaccination rate in the country.

Leiking, who is Penampang MP, also demanded Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob to respond to news reports on claims that the supply of Covid-19 vaccines from the federal government did not arrive in Sabah as scheduled.

He said Ismail, as the former National Security Council (MKN) chairman, would surely be aware of the assurances by the former vaccines minister Khairy Jamaluddin to chief minister Hajiji Noor over the CanSino vaccine previously.

He added Khairy had promised Hajiji that the state will be given priority when three million doses of the single-dose CanSino vaccine arrives in Malaysia this month.

Leiking cited media reports on Aug 12 of Hajiji saying that 200,000 doses of the vaccine was expected to arrive in Sabah the following week.

“Subsequently, on Aug 20, that same number of doses of the CanSino vaccine arrived in Kuala Lumpur from China and this was widely reported by the media.

“So, the question is, if the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS)-led state government had received the 200,000 doses and fully utilised it in the course of three days, or was there a lower amount given to the state?” Leiking said.

He added that if GRS aspires to vaccinate 50,000 Sabahans a day and the batch of 200,000 doses of CanSino vaccine had been delivered, then it would mean that the vaccines would be finished in just four days.

“So what’s next? Will GRS resort to sit passively and wait for our turn to receive the next batch of vaccines from the federal government?”

Leiking said Putrajaya should send more vaccines supplies to Sabah as the state has been a consistent contributor to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) through its petroleum and natural gas resources. - FMT