Malaysia

Sabah receives first batch of Covid-19 shots

State aims to inoculate just over 2% of population, doses to arrive in six deliveries

Updated 5 years ago · Published on 25 Feb 2021 3:48PM

Sabah receives first batch of Covid-19 shots — Sabah Covid-19 spokesman Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun (third from right) posing with the Covid-19 vaccine doses that arrived at the Kota Kinabalu International Airport this afternoon. – The Vibes pic, February 25, 2021

by Junaidi Ladjana

KOTA KINABALU – The first delivery of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine assigned for Sabah arrived at Terminal 2 of the Kota Kinabalu International Airport at 12.40pm.

A total of 16,380 doses were flown in with a Raya Airways Boeing aircraft, which departed from the Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport in Subang, at 10.30am today.

Overseeing the vaccine arrival, state Covid-19 spokesman Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun said the first phase of Sabah’s immunisation drive involves a total of 104,110 doses, which will arrive in six deliveries between today and April 1.

“The second delivery will be on March 4, with about 9,360 doses, while the third will be on March 11 with 24,550 doses.

“The fourth will be on March 18 with 3,510 doses, the fifth will be on March 25 with 18,720 doses, and the final delivery will be on April 1 with 31,590 doses,” he told reporters at the airport today.

The 104,110 doses is sufficient to inoculate 52,055 persons, or about 2.08% of the population.

Airport workers pulling one of the few consignments filled with the Covid-19 vaccine, 16,380 doses of which were received by Sabah today. – The Vibes pic, February 25, 2021

Masidi, who is also state Local Government and Housing Minister and state Finance Minister II, was representing Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Md Noor.

Also present were state Community Development and People’s Well-being Minister Shahelmy Yahya, Special Tasks Minister Datuk Mohd Arifin Mohd Arif, state Secretary Datuk Seri Safar Untong and Sabah Health Director Datuk Dr Christina Rundi.

Hajiji is expected to be the first recipient of the vaccine on March 4. The two other recipients joining him are Rundi and state police chief Datuk Hazani Ghazali.

Masidi said 42,117 Sabah frontliners – Health Ministry and non-ministry staffers – will be vaccinated in the first phase of the immunisation programme.

He added that the government aims to vaccinate close to four million Sabahans by year end, with the inoculations only going to Malaysians.

“Each person will get two doses, with the second dose administered three weeks from the first one.”

He added that Sabah does not need to emulate Sarawak’s inoculation plan, which aims to vaccinate up to 70% of its 2.2 million population by August.

Sarawak also floated the idea of buying the vaccine on its own if doses are insufficient, as it wants to inoculate 80% of the population to achieve herd immunity.

To this, Masidi said: “There is no need to spend money to buy the vaccine when we can get it from Putrajaya.” – The Vibes, February 25, 2021

Additional reporting by Jason Santos