MIRI – Sarawak is on track to become the first state in the country to attain herd immunity with 70% of its populace having been inoculated.
Medical and health teams are also earning praise for ramping up vaccination efforts.
Progressive Democratic Party secretary-general Datuk Nelson Balang Rining told The Vibes that feedback from the community shows an all-round appreciation from villagers towards the vaccination effort by frontliners.
He said that at his home village in the Bakelalan mountains adjacent to the Kalimantan border in northernmost Sarawak, vaccination for almost all the settlements have been covered.
“In Bakelalan highlands, the military medical teams have covered remote villages that are not accessible by land and river.
“The army flew in vaccination teams, together with Health Department staff.
“In those villages below the mountains that are closer to Lawas town, ground teams, doctors and nurses from the Sarawak Health Department went on mobile rounds.
“All of them put in fantastic efforts.
“Very soon, the mountainous highlands can see 100% vaccination,” he said.
Balang said that the spread of Covid-19 can hopefully be contained if Sarawak can vaccinate its entire adult population.
Retired teacher Mary Anne Vaz told The Vibes of how a nurse with a vaccination team in Ulu Baram boarded a longboat to vaccinate an elderly woman from Uma Bawang Baram.
“My former student Sonia Luhang said her mother Mujan Jau, 94, was vaccinated in a longboat by a nurse as she was too weak to climb up a steep bank.
“Such efforts are worthy of praise,” Vaz said.
The Sarawak Health Department’s latest statistics showed that 86.7% of the state’s adult population have received their first dose, while 67% are fully vaccinated. – The Vibes, August 2, 2021
