The National COVID-19 immunisation program runs in three different phases – Phase 1 for frontliners, Phase 2 for the senior citizens, people with chronic illnesses and people with disability and Phase 3 for the remaining adults. In Sarawak, the state aims to vaccinate people across all categories at the same time in rural areas.
According to Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas, this approach is suggested so that health officers who are mobilised to these remote areas with the vaccines would not need to make repeated trips just to administer based on the categories and phases. In addition, the move is also seen as a much more effective in ensuring that most of the communities living in remote places could be vaccinated.
He added that a detailed planning ought to be done so that the vaccines would be able to reach the far reaches of Sarawak. He gave an example if they are going to Bario, the state authorities would vaccinate everyone respective of their category and phases so that they won’t have to make repeated trips which might cause a lot of complications.
Most of the vaccines procured in Malaysia require two doses and there’s an interval between 14 to 28 days between each jab. With the one-go approach, this could mean that a small village can be fully vaccinated with just two trips, instead of six under the current 3 Phase arrangement.
Uggah, who is also the Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) Chairman, said that Kuala Lumpur has been receptive to the idea and to Sarawak’s proposal to purchase its own vaccines if needed. Sarawak has plans to procure its own COVID-19 vaccines if the federal government’s supply is insufficient to meet the state’s vaccination targets. Sarawak aims to vaccinate at least 2 million people by August 2021.
Uggas also said that the SDMC has been briefed by all division committees on the proposed plans and estimated cost to vaccinate people in interior areas. He shared that this would be a massive operation and reaching out to folks in the interior and on time would be their greatest challenge.
Under the current plan, Phase 1 which covers 500,000 frontliners is expected to be completed by April 2021. Phase 2 which covers 9.4 million people which include senior citizens, people with chronic diseases and people with disabilities, will run from April to August 2021. All remaining adults including non-citizens will only receive their vaccinations in Phase 3 which will run from May 2021 until February 2022.
As of 12th March 2021, a total of 275,851 frontliners have received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Sarawak is the state with the second most vaccinations after Selangor with 29,052 individuals have received their jab.
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