Sabah should be given Covid-19 vaccine supply priority, says MP

Sabah, the state that recorded the highest number of positive Covid-19 cases in Malaysia, should be given priority to receive the supply of Covid-19 vaccine once it is available in the country.

The matter was proposed by Chan Foong Hin (Pakatan Harapan-Kota Kinabalu) in his debate on the Supply Bill 2021 at the Dewan Rakyat sitting today.

“Since Sabah is the epicentre for the third wave of the pandemic, I would like to propose for the people of Sabah to be given priority to receive the vaccine, which is expected to be made available next year,” he said.

As of Nov 9, Chan said Sabah has recorded over 20,000 positive cases, the highest among other states in Malaysia, and hence, an urgent allocation to handle the crisis in the state should be given priority.

In fact, he said Sabah had been facing numerous public health woes long before the spread of Covid-19.

Chan Foong Hin

So far, Chan said there were 24 public hospital and 300 health clinics in Sabah, but still insufficient to facilitate the needs of the people in the state.

He claimed that the official doctor-people ratio in Sabah stood at 1:856 (one doctor for 856 people) compared to the national ratio of 1:454, hence posing a great challenge to the hospitals and the frontliners when the daily number of Covid-19 cases continued to show a spike.

He said many healthcare workers and frontliners in Sabah were also infected with the virus and some had to work overtime and continuously to meet the needs of healthcare workers, especially in hospitals around Kota Kinabalu, Sandakan, Lahad Datu, Semporna and Tawau. - Bernama