See Chee How
KUCHING (June 19): The Sarawak government has been called upon to take special care of the health and well-being of health care workers and volunteers involved in the Covid-19 vaccination drive.
In making this call last night, Batu Lintang assemblyman See Chee How described these Sarawakians as the most valuable human resources and assets of Sarawak.
“I urge the state government to take special care of the health and well-being of the doctors, nurses, health care staff, volunteers and those who are involved in the vaccination exercise, and their families.
“These Sarawakians are certainly the most valuable human resources and assets of the state. I am hoping that arrangements are made for them to have sufficient rest in this trying time,” he said during the Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB) Southern Zone Taskforce Facebook Live last night.
See, who is PSB lawmaker, said the Sarawak government must continue and step up the efforts to encourage and mobilise all Sarawakians to take ownership of the vaccination programme.
He said this is to ensure that the state can quickly complete the mass vaccination required to achieve herd immunity, thus allowing Sarawak to embark on economic recovery, growth and to reconnect with the rest of the world, to bring prosperity to all Sarawakians.
He also lauded the successful private-public sectors partnership which had delivered a most efficacious and delightful vaccination exercise in Sarawak in the past week.
He said such move had helped administer 259,624 doses of vaccine, a whopping three-fold increase compare to the previous week.
“All the members in State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC), Ministry of Health (MOH), the Resident’s and District Offices and the public and private hospitals and clinics, doctors, nurses, health care staff, volunteers and those who are involved in the vaccination exercise fully deserved a ‘Simon Cowell two-thumbs up’ from all Sarawakians.”
See, however, said everyone had to be ready and cautious of the numerous pitfalls with maintaining this strong drive in the statewide vaccination exercise.
He hoped that the federal government and the Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF) will keep their promise with the weekly delivery of 384,000 doses of vaccine.
In the meantime, he said the state government must be steadfast in its demand for timeous arrival to meet Sarawak’s needs.
He added that the Sarawak government must be transparent by disclosing the number of vaccines and their portfolio so that Sarawakians are aware of their availability and sufficiency.
“The registration exercise has remained slow. After the Movement Control Order (MCO) on May 29, we have only registered 188,424 eligible Sarawakians for vaccination, with the total of 1,405,883 eligible Sarawakians being registered, still another 794,117 eligible Sarawakians to be registered.
“At our present rate of inoculation, we will have finished vaccinating all the present registered eligible Sarawakians by Aug 16, but still short of the target of herd immunity, achieving only 63.9 per cent of the target,” he pointed out.
As such, See said there is a need to ramp up the registration exercise immediately to ensure that Sarawak can vaccinate the necessary number of eligible Sarawakians to achieve herd immunity, hopefully by end of September.
Towards this end, he said the state must emphasise the need to vaccinate the elders and those with comorbidities.
Based on the MOH’s record of June 8, he said only 20 per cent or about 1.9 million, of the targeted 9.4 million high-risk groups had been vaccinated with at least one dose of the vaccine.
“Sarawak should reveal the numbers of all those who are classified as high-risk and the number of them being vaccinated. We will need to pay special attention in our drive to register and give priority for their vaccination,” he added.