KOTA KINABALU: Some 60,000 frontliners and 193,953 senior citizens as well as those in the high-risk group are eligible to get the Covid-19 vaccine booster dose in Sabah from today.
Launching the booster dose programme, which comes under the national Covid-19 immunisation programme (PICK), at the Sabah International Convention Centre here, Sabah chief minister Hajiji Noor said it would be carried out in two stages.
The first stage was for healthcare and non-healthcare frontliners starting today until Nov 20, while the second stage would be for senior citizens aged 60 and above as well as those with comorbidities, starting from Nov 2, he said.
The booster dose is free under PICK and dispensed on a voluntary basis for all those who are fully vaccinated and have taken their second dose at least six months prior.
At the moment, the health ministry has decided that the booster dose is only for those who have received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
“Although receiving the booster dose is a choice for individuals, it is highly recommended that they take it to get optimum protection from Covid-19,” Hajiji said in a statement.
He added that the booster dose was also for those found with waning immunity after six months of completing their vaccination.
He said the booster shots would be administered at selected government and private medical facilities under the supervision of ProtectHealth Corporation Sdn Bhd.
Eligible individuals would be notified through the MySejahtera application, while the vaccination centres (PPVs) would be making the announcement via SMS or phone calls for those without the application.
On another note, Hajiji urged the people not to throw caution to the wind following the lifting of inter-district and interstate travel as well as reopening of several economic sectors in Sabah.
“We must ensure that we fully comply with the SOPs. We have to protect not only ourselves but also those around us, particularly our family,” he said.
He also urged those who have yet to be vaccinated to do so by going to the nearest PPVs, hospitals and clinics or visiting the outreach programmes being held near them.
As at Oct 18, 70.8% of adults aged 18 and above in Sabah have been fully vaccinated.
Meanwhile, 50.31% or 218,367 out of the 434,000 children aged 12 to 18 in the state have been fully vaccinated while 319,707 or 73.67% have received one dose of the vaccine as at Oct 18.
Hajiji said that in terms of the overall population, 2,355,859 people have received at least one dose of the vaccine while 2,140,780 have been fully vaccinated. - FMT
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