KUCHING, April 15 — The Sarawak government has requested the Federal government to supply the state with China’s single-dose CanSino COVID-19 vaccine, says Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas.
Uggah, who is also State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) chairman, said he had made the request during a meeting with National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme Coordinating Minister Khairy Jamaluddin at Putrajaya recently.
He said the CanSino vaccine which only requires a single dose shot was the most feasible vaccine for Sarawakians living in the interiors.
“We have requested for at least 600,000 to 800,000 (doses of the) CanSino COVID-19 vaccine to be supplied to Sarawak.
“The vaccine will be used to facilitate our vaccination (programme) for the people in the interiors,” he said at a press conference here today.
On April 1, Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba said Malaysia will receive 3.5 million doses of the CanSino COVID-19 vaccine from China in stages, beginning this month.
Dr Adham said the CanSino vaccine would be used mainly in rural areas and where it was difficult for recipients to receive two doses as required for other vaccines such as the ones from Pfizer-BioNTech and Sinovac.
Meanwhile, Uggah said the state government was taking all the necessary measures to ensure that Sarawak secured the vaccines required for its immunisation programme.
“This includes our preparedness to buy our own vaccines so that our target to conclude vaccinations in Sarawak by the end of August can be achieved,” he added.
