A health worker administers a dose of a Covid-19 vaccine. — Bernama file photo
KUCHING (May 27): The Sarawak Business Federation (SBF) has appealed to the business community to proactively encourage their employees to register for the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme.
Secretary-general Jonathan Chai said this is in view of the government’s recent announcement that private hospitals and private clinics would participate in administering vaccines with the ultimate aim of achieving herd immunity.
“SBF welcomes the participation of the private hospitals and private clinics as part of their social responsibility to administer the coronavirus vaccines in order to vaccinate our public widely and quickly with the aim of achieving early herd immunity.
“In particular, SBF appeals to the business community to play a proactive role by encouraging their employees to register themselves for vaccination as a noble exercise of their corporate social responsibility,” he said in a statement.
He pointed out that as of May 20, the state only had 1,147,403 eligible Sarawakians registered for vaccination through MySejahtera with another one million yet to register.
As such, he said SBF appealed to the public to register for vaccination as soon as possible so that the herd immunity could be achieved.
Chai pointed out Covid-19 vaccination at private hospitals and private clinics is free of charge to the public as the government pays a nominal administration fee to them and bears the cost of the vaccines.
He said registration would still be through MySejahtera and only those entitled to be vaccinated under the second phase would be eligible.
He explained the option to pick a private hospital or private clinic or the type of vaccine was not available.
“Private hospitals and private clinics are just one of the vaccination centres together with the other public hospitals or immunisation centres.
“The number of inoculations of the vaccines on the public is expected to pick up substantially in anticipation of the increase in Covid-19 vaccine supply of more than a million doses every month under the NCIP from June to August,” he added.
Recently, Local Government and Housing Minister Dato Sri Dr Sim Kui Hian said over 30 general practitioner (GP) clinics and seven private hospitals in Sarawak had registered with the Protect Health Corporation (PHC) to assist in rolling out Covid-19 vaccine shots to the public by appointment basis under MySejahtera.