Lee (front right) checks preparations at the Dato Lee Teck Fook Stadium.
MIRI (June 15): The Covid-19 vaccination centre (PPV) at Miri Hospital will be transferred to the Dato Lee Teck Fook Stadium at Riam Road Secondary School (RRSS) from Thursday (June 17).
Miri Division Disaster Management Committee (MDDMC) said in a press statement that the Miri Hospital PPV is unable to cope with the high demand for vaccination.
The hospital also does not have enough parking spaces and the waiting area for vaccine recipients is limited as well.
MDDMC minister in charge Datuk Lee Kim Shin said the new PPV has the capacity to provide 1,500 vaccinations daily.
In addition, he said the PPV at Eastwood Hall can conduct 2,500 vaccinations a day.
“All the PPVs in Miri city including the new PPV Dato Lee Teck Fook Stadium and the only PPV to administer AstraZeneca at the National Youth Skills Institute (IKBN) Miri has the huge capacity to roll out a total of 7,600 doses of vaccines a day.
“The operations at these PPVs, which were scheduled to run from 8am until 5pm earlier, have been extended to end at 8pm except PPV IKBN where the schedule of the operation remains unchanged. According to KKM (Ministry of Health), this capacity is sufficient to handle the number of Covid-19 vaccines that will be received for Miri Division,” he said after inspecting preparations at the new PPV today.
He said the committee faced problems increasing the number of PPVs in the division due to a shortage of medical workers.
Lee added Miri Division had submitted an application to the Covid-19 Immunisation Taskforce (CITF) Sarawak on the dire need to fill medical vacancies for the division such as medical officers (10), pharmacy officers (4), assistant medical officers (6), and nurses (11).
However, he said so far, Miri Division has only received one application for medical officers, two for assistant medical officers, and three applications for nurses.