KOTA KINABALU – Sabah will get 180,000 doses of the single-shot CanSino vaccine before the end of the month, said state health exco Shahelmey Yahya today.
This includes the 50,800 doses that arrived in the state on Tuesday.
Shahelmey, who is also Sabah community development and people’s well-being minister, said the vaccines will arrive in stages this month and more are on the way.
The single-shot vaccines are meant for Sabah folk living in remote areas, he added.
“The state welcomes the delivery of the CanSino vaccines, which will hasten the vaccination of the people.
“CanSino is ideal for those living in rural areas and will be deployed via the outreach programmes,” he said, adding that this will eliminate the need for health workers to revisit areas for follow-up jabs.
The second batch of 43,200 CanSino vaccines arrived at the Kota Kinabalu International Airport earlier today, adding to the 50,800 doses that arrived earlier, while another 86,000 doses will arrive tomorrow.
Sabah also received 70,000 doses of the Sinovac vaccine today, while 252,720 Pfizer-BioNTech doses arrived on Monday.
The arrival of CanSino was also lauded by Health Director-General Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, who tweeted of the doses arriving in Sabah.
Ingin dimaklumkan sejumlah 180,000 dos vaksin satu suntikan Cansino telahpun dihantar ke Negeri Sabah. Diharapkan vaksin Cansino dapat mempercepatkan san memudahkan liputan vaksinisasi khususnya di kawasan pendalaman dan kumpulan sasar yang telah dikenalpasti.
— Noor Hisham Abdullah (@DGHisham) August 26, 2021
“I hope that the CanSino vaccines will ease vaccination in the rural and targeted areas.”
Opposition and NGO leaders in Sabah have called on the state government to deploy the CanSino vaccines for rural residents as part of vaccine drive in Sabah.
Shahelmey said Putrajaya will send more vaccines soon and that the 180,000 CanSino doses are only early deliveries.
Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Mohd Noor had previously been reported as saying Sabah will receive 200,000 CanSino doses. – The Vibes, August 26, 2021
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