SANDAKAN – Sabah is looking into providing the CanSino Covid-19 vaccine to those living on rural islands due to its single-dose regimen.
Sandakan health officer Dr Johari Awang Besar said the Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF) here is planning to bring the jabs to the islanders instead of getting them to the mainland, to ensure more will be inoculated.
“Some of these islands are at least 30 minutes away by boat from the mainland. If we want more of them to receive the jab, it is best that we go to them. The CanSino vaccine will be perfect as it only requires one dose.”
He added that the Sabah Health Department and Sandakan health office have requested the CanSino vaccine.
“We cannot wait for the CanSino jabs to arrive to start vaccination for them. We must start now, even with Pfizer-BioNTech and Sinovac vaccines.”
The CanSino vaccine is expected to reach Malaysia by the end of July.
Johari said the CITF Sandakan team is planning to vaccinate islanders this weekend, starting with Pulau Tanjung Aru.
This follows the positive response from villagers who had registered themselves manually during the CITF outreach programme last Thursday.
Meanwhile, Johari said that the vaccination rate in Sandakan is still very low, with only 20% registered for the vaccine, and less than 10% having received their first dose.
“Our target in Sandakan is to reach 398,000 (80% of population), and we are still far behind.
“However, we are confident that we will be able to reach the target by October or November this year because there will be a drastic increase in vaccination starting next month.
“We opened the second vaccination centre for the district in Dewan Sri Libaran Mile 7 today, and we are expecting to open another one in Hakka Hall, Mile 6 next month.
“If all plans go smoothly, we will be able to vaccinate about 3,000 people daily.”
Johari said this at a press conference after the launching of the Dewan Sri Libaran Mile 7 centre here today.
He urged vaccine recipients to follow the vaccination schedule set for them.
“We need them to be disciplined and follow appointment times to ease our jobs. We have a team who will call them if they fail to be present in accordance with the scheduled time, but some of them give inaccurate phone numbers.
“We also urge all recipients not to choose the brand of the vaccine. We have had people rejecting their vaccine because they prefer Pfizer or Sinovac. Please just get whichever vaccine is available on that day.
“We hope for cooperation from all recipients so we can have a smooth and speedy vaccination process,” he said. – The Vibes, June 21, 2021
