KUCHING, Feb 27 — The Sarawak government’s focus now is to save the lives of its people in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak and not on the state election (PRN) in the near future.
Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg said as the country was placed under the Emergency Ordinance and the PRN could only be held after that.
“We are currently under the emergency, elections can only be (held) later. Elections can be held at anytime. Life is more important,” he said in a press conference at the launch of the Sarawak COVID-19 Immunisation Programme at the Perpaduan Stadium, here, today.
The current mandate of the current Sarawak government is until June 2021.
Meanwhile, Abang Johari, who was among the first individuals in Sarawak to receive the COVID-19 vaccine yesterday, said the state government aims to give the vaccine to more than two million residents by August.
According to him, the immunisation programme will also be implemented in three phases and subject to vaccine supply.
He also said the COVID-19 immunisation programme for the state which started yesterday has also reached the target when a total of 1,688 individuals had been vaccinated as at yesterday.
“The state government has also provided an allocation of RM30 million for the vaccine delivery logistics throughout Sarawak.
“The execution of this programme is a very difficult exercise as it requires extensive planning, and needs a lot of manpower and logistics given the size of the state. But I am confident that our State Disaster Management Committee will be able to implement it with success,” he added.
Sarawak received its first batch of 23,400 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on Wednesday.
