LABUAN, Feb 18 — The ‘wait-and-see’ attitude among parents has been cited as a reason for the low percentage of children getting vaccinated in Labuan under the National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme for Children (PICKids).
Labuan Health Department director Dr Ismuni Bohari said only 6.9 per cent or 809 of the 11,700 targeted children have so far received the shots, after PICKids was launched on Feb 7.
“A high number of parents are still having second thoughts or are being fence-sitters and have adopted the wait-and-see approach to find out the response from other parents towards PICKids.
“It is quite discouraging to see the low number of children, aged between five and 11 years, register or walk into the vaccine administration centres after PICKids was launched on Feb 7,” he told Bernama today.
He said four centres have been set up to vaccinate children, at Sekolah Kebangsaan (SK) Pekan 2, SK Sungai Lada, Labuan Hospital and the Darul Kifayah Hall.
Dr Ismuni said the engagement session with people via the Facebook social media platform and the department’s website would continue to enable them understand the importance of vaccination to protect their children against COVID-19.
“With an increasing number of schoolgoing children testing positive for COVID-19, parents should realise the importance of the vaccine for their children. Why wait until you are infected to get the shots.
“We understand the concern of parents on the efficacy and safety of the vaccine for their children. The vaccine is safe,” he said.
Dr Ismuni said that except for discomfort on the injected arm, none of the 809 vaccinated children had experienced severe side effects.
Labuan recorded a sudden sharp increase in new cases, at 447, on Feb 17 compared to only single-digit cases over the last two weeks. Active cases rose to 1,738 as of that date.
