In Sandakan, migrants more eager than locals to get jab?

SANDAKAN – The walk-in vaccination programme for residents here continues to record a low turnout despite 58% of the district’s adult population yet to receive their first Covid-19 vaccine dose.

On Thursday at Hakka Hall, the site of one of Sandakan’s five vaccination centres (PPVs), only 33% of the prepared doses were administered.

The Hakka Hall PPV had 1,200 first doses ready for walk-in recipients, but only 397 individuals turned up.

On Friday, only 500 recipients came, leading the district health office to reduce the number of vaccines at the centre to 480 yesterday, when just 398 people showed up.

This is in stark contrast to the Tuesday and Wednesday turnout at the same location, when the queues stretched as far as into the Taman Tyng housing area.

The difference is that the walk-in drive on Tuesday and Wednesday was also open to non-Malaysians.

It is learnt that the crowd swelled to such an extent that the health office decided to halt slots for non-citizens at the PPV.

Three other PPVs, namely Dewan Sri Libaran, Sandakan Community Hall and Yu Yuan Secondary School Hall, are still accepting non-Malaysian walk-ins starting in the evening.

Checks by The Vibes found the three jab sites crowded during the hours set for non-citizens to get vaccinated, contributing to the impression that the migrant community here is more keen than locals to get inoculated.

District health officer Dr Johari Awang Besar told The Vibes that the initial plan for these three PPVs was to administer 50% of doses to locals, with the rest going to non-Malaysians.

However, he said, there has been overwhelming response from non-citizens but a low turnout among locals, leading the PPVs to administer 30% of the jabs to locals and 70% to non-citizens.

“The response among locals is really disappointing. We conducted a walk-in session in hopes that we could reach the 50% vaccination rate in Sandakan as soon as possible.

“But after a week of large-scale walk-in sessions, we are now at 42% (of Sandakan’s adult population receiving the first dose).

“The vaccination rate for Sandakan has increased this week, but we did not expect to see such a low turnout at walk-in PPVs, especially at Hakka Hall.”

Sandakan has a 363,000-strong adult population, with the health office targeting an 80% vaccination rate for this group by end-September.

Dr Johari said Sandakan folk who have yet to receive their first jab neglected to utilise the walk-in facility because they do not want to go through the trouble of leaving home and queuing up to get the shot.

“Maybe, some of them have transportation problems. Maybe, those living in the interior areas are not informed of the walk-in sessions.”

He advised residents to stop delaying their vaccination.

“It is the only way to control the infection rate. Sandakan has registered over 200 Covid-19 cases daily for the past few days.

“Go through the trouble just twice to get the vaccine, so that we can hit our 80% vaccination rate target by the end of September.

“You might not even need to queue up, as Hakka Hall has been rather empty for the past three days.” – The Vibes, August 29, 2021