KOTA KINABALU – Warisan today called on Putrajaya to hold on to its promise to send the first batch of the single-dose CanSino vaccine to Sabah.
Its deputy president Datuk Darell Leiking said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob must be aware of the assurances made by former coordinating minister for the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme Khairy Jamaluddin to Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Mohd Noor.
It was reported the former science, technology and innovation minister had promised Hajiji that the first delivery of the single-dose vaccines would be assigned to Sabah.
The first batch of the 200,000 CanSino doses had arrived in Malaysia on August 20 and the next day, Hajiji said the Sabah would be receiving some 560,720 doses of the CanSino, Pfizer and Sinovac shots the week after.
Leiking then pointed out a news portal report quoting sources that vaccine supplies in the state are now dwindling, and that many of the 177 inoculation centres in the state have reduced the number of jabs administered to between 500 and 600 doses a day.
“On August 12, the chief minister of Sabah was reported as saying that 200,000 doses of the CanSino vaccine is expected to arrive in the state the week after.
“On August 20, the same number of said vaccine arrived at KLIA (Kuala Lumpur International Airport) from China, and this was reported by media all over the country,” he said
Leiking now questioned whether the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah government really would be receiving the 200,000 doses that arrived at KLIA on August 20.
“If the GRS-led state government aspires to vaccinate 50,000 Sabahans a day and the batch of 200,000 doses of CanSino vaccine had indeed been delivered to Sabah, which would barely last four days, what’s next after this first batch is finished?
“Will the GRS-led state government resort to sitting passively and waiting for our turn to receive the next batch of vaccines (Pfizer, CanSino or others) from the federal government?
“This may be due in a month or so, in view that some of the Malay rulers in the peninsula are now also demanding strongly for the speeding up of the vaccination programme in their respective states,” he said.
Leiking said Sabah’s Covid-19 crisis has been compounded by its low vaccination rate, and soon, case numbers will surpass those in Selangor, including the number of deaths.
“The ongoing rampage of Covid-19 is a war and Warisan is ever ready to support and assist the relevant district-level (GRS) administrators and officials.
“This is a ‘war’ that requires all of us to prioritise the lives and well-being of ordinary Sabahans, hence the party’s elected representatives and divisional machineries are ever ready to support and assist the relevant local administrators and officials, through various means, in containing the pandemic.
“We should not confine our thinking or judgement to merely within the political context because the issue at hand involves the lives of innocent people. There is a time when we, as the people’s representatives and political leaders, need to act based on virtue and prudence,” he said. – The Vibes, August 24, 2021
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