Dr Kelvin Yii
KUCHING (Sept 13): The Ministry of Health (MoH) and State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) have been called on to urgently expedite the vaccination of 12- to 17-year-olds in Sarawak.
Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii said this is vital due to how widely the Delta variant has spread.
For the freshest news, join our Telegram Channel.
“There has to be some form of ‘Ops Surge Capacity’ when it comes to vaccinating our children as the spill over of the current surge of cases may affect them, potentially causing the next Delta wave to be among our children that are yet to be vaccinated,” he said in a statement.
Despite Sarawak having achieved a high vaccination rate among the adult population, Yii pointed out the total population’s vaccination rate was only about 64 per cent.
According to him, high infections and the infectiousness of the Delta variant would expose children and those who have yet to be vaccinated to be vulnerable to the variant’s devastating effects.
“While I am glad that vaccination among adolescent has started in Sarawak, this has to be expedited even more to make sure more children get the needed protection as fast as possible.”
Yii said this would require constant high shipment of vaccines into the State and decentralisation of vaccination centres (PPVs) for children to the different schools across Sarawak.
To avoid congestion at specific PPVs, Yii said children should be allowed to be vaccinated in their own schools or special PPVs should be open in as many schools as possible.
“This makes it easier to track those children that are getting the vaccines based on school records including capturing those that have dropped out from school,” he said.
Yii said the state could achieve a total population vaccination rate of 83.4 per cent if all adolescents aged 12 to 17 are vaccinated this month.
“Then further plan to vaccinate those below 12 based on available data, especially in view of reopening of schools.
“We have seen in countries of high vaccine coverage such as Norway and the United Kingdom experiencing increase of cases among children the moment schools reopened,” he pointed out.
Yii reiterated his call for MoH and SDMC to be transparent about their plans and strategy regarding the Covid-19 situation in the State.
He said Sarawak’s weekly Covid-19 infections saw an increase of almost 300 per cent for the past weeks and fatalities had also witnessed a sharp 200 per cent increase in the same period – from 20 to 60 deaths.
Yii also pointed out more than 50 per cent of the 27 Covid-19 fatalities reported on Sept 5-6 were fully vaccinated.
“That is why, previously I have cautioned SDMC and MoH from shifting into full endemic-style (living with Covid-19) strategy in Sarawak prematurely without first addressing some of the fundamental public health measures,” he said.
This included investing in the public health system to continue the required Find, Test, Trace, Isolate and Support (FTTIS) protocol and coming up with a comprehensive National Testing Plan, which includes frequent testing at workplace, factories, schools, and all social events.
More importantly, Yii said there had to be a clear policy on a Covid-19 booster shot, especially for front-liners and high-risk groups, in view of the waning effectiveness of vaccines over time.