Khairy speaks during a press conference after a meeting with the state CITF today. – Photo by Information Department.
KOTA KINABALU (Sept 6): Sabah will receive additional medical equipment to help the state overcome the Covid-19 pandemic, said Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin today.
Khairy told a press conference after a meeting with the state Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF) that Sabah will receive 480 units of oxygen cylinders, 24 boxes of Oxygen Regulator and five boxes of Covid-19 medication.
According to him, the additional medical equipment will be arriving tomorrow (Sept 7) and the delivery will be facilitated by the armed forces.
“The infection cases in Sabah is on an upward trend, therefore a more holistic and concrete act of intervention needs to be implemented. This includes preparation in the aspect of facility, medical equipment and human resource,” said Khairy in the joint press conference with Chief Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Hajiji Noor.
He also stressed the federal government’s commitment to deliver 2.89 million doses of vaccines to Sabah this month and that vaccination for the single dose CanSino vaccine will be intensified through mobile outreach in the hard to reach and difficult areas in the state.
The outreach programmes commenced on Aug 27 and will run until end of this month, he said adding that it involved 180,000 doses of the CanSino vaccine.
Khairy disclosed that there are 224 vaccination centres in Sabah with a total capacity of 83,140 doses of vaccine a day.
“The Health Ministry will also set modular ICU (Intensive Care Unit) with a 10 bed capacity in Tawau District hospital by the end of this month and we will be conducting a site visit in Tawau for a field hospital to be set up,” he said.
In order to ensure that there will be optimum use of human resources at all health facilities and on the ground, Khairy said the Health Ministry will re-mobilise its staff to Sabah.
Khairy said these were the 97 personnel who were mobilised to Selangor and they are expected to report for duty in Sabah by end of this week.
He added that 50 of them will be offered permanent posts.
“As of Sept 2, there are 27 hospitals in Sabah with the capacity of 151 beds in ICU for Covid-19 cases and 1,743 non ICU beds while the 31 public PKRC and four detention PKRC have a total of 7,143 beds,” he said.
The Health Ministry has also allocated 29 more ambulances for Sabah’s hospitals, he said.
Khairy said that with the additional vaccines and medical personnel, Sabah is on target to have 80 per cent of its adult population vaccinated by end of October.
“Once the target is reached we can start vaccinating the adolescents in Sabah with focus on those in the high risk groups and between the ages of 16 and 17,” he said.
Khairy also said that Sabah is a priority state when it comes to allocation of the CanSino vaccine.
“There is limited supply of the CanSino vaccine at the moment and Malaysia is expected to receive 300,000 doses of it by end of the month. We will allocate accordingly to Sabah,” he said.