Yong
KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) is disappointed that only 53,000 doses out of the 200,000 doses of CanSino vaccine that arrived in Kuala Lumpur last Friday were sent to Sabah.
Its president, Datuk Yong Teck Lee, in a statement on Wednesday said that only three per cent of the promised 1.8 million doses of CanSino vaccine requested by the Sabah government had been delivered.
”This is unacceptable. Therefore, I repeat my earlier demand that the supply of CanSino vaccine from China be sent direct to Sabah without having to go through KLIA, to avoid it from being diverted elsewhere instead of coming here,“ said Yong.
”The Director-General of Health Service must be fair to Sabah and ensure that all PPVs in the state operate at maximum capacity,” added Yong.
The Covid-19 cases in Sabah have risen to more than 3,000 cases on Tuesday, and the latest figure is a surprise compared to the earlier week.
”We are proud that Malaysia has the highest vaccination rate in the world but in Sabah, we are forced to accept the unsatisfactory rate of only 31.4 per cent of people who have completed the second dose, the lowest rate in Malaysia.
”At the same time, there are PPVs in Sabah which are forced to postpone the vaccination process at the last minute due to insufficient vaccines.
”For example, according to a report, the Beaufort Dewan Pa‘ Musa PPV was able to administer only 100 doses today,” said Yong.
He said Sabah places a lot of hope on the CanSino vaccine that can speed up the immunisation process, especially for rural people who have difficulties accessing PPVs.
“CanSino is the answer to reduce the burden of having to make two trips for the vaccine,” he said.
The Chief Minister has said a few times on expediting vaccination in Sabah but it is worrying that the efforts of the state government is badly affected by the failure of the Federal Ministry of Health to fulfill its commitment to supply and distribute the vaccines in time to Sabah.
”Every delay in the supply and distribution of vaccines is critical and expose more people to the infection and also delay the economic recovery in Sabah,” added Yong.