A nurse administers a dose of the Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine in Labuan. — Bernama photo
KUCHING (May 27): The postponement of the Covid-19 vaccination programme for the Sarawak General Hospital (SGH) and Sibu today was due to flight availability from Kuala Lumpur to deliver the vaccine supply, said acting Sarawak Health Director Dr Rosemawati Ariffin.
She said her department reported the matter to Coordinating Minister of the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme Khairy Jamaluddin, and he had managed to help to push the delivery of the vaccines to Sarawak yesterday.
“The vaccine supply was scheduled to arrive early for the May 28 vaccination programme at the Sarawak General Hospital (SGH). However the Sarawak Health Department was informed that the delivery would be delayed. Therefore we took a proactive action and decided to postpone the vaccination programme to a later time.
“The reason for the initial delay was, we were told, there were no flights available to deliver the vaccines to Sarawak at that time. However it was resolved after another flight was found,” she explained.
As such, the Covid-19 vaccination programme for SGH here will resume at noon tomorrow.
Dr Rosemawati said recipients will be notified via telephone or Whatsapp on their new appointment schedule as soon as possible.
The vaccination programme at SGH was initially delayed until further notice after the hospital was informed that there would be a delay in the delivery of the vaccines.
The SGH Covid-19 Vaccine Committee had issued notices to recipients of the delay, adding that recipients will be informed via telephone or Whatsapp on their new appointment schedule.
As for Sibu, Dr Rosemawati said the vaccination programme there will be carried out on May 30 after it was postponed from tomorrow.
However, the Covid-19 immunisation appointments for those on May 29 remain unchanged.