KOTA KINABALU, Sept 9 — A total of 1.02 million more adults in Sabah need to get the COVID-19 vaccination for the state to achieve herd immunity to curb the spread of the COVID-19 outbreak, said Sabah Health director Dr Rose Nani Mudin.
She said as of yesterday, more than 1.29 million individuals or 47 per cent of the adult population in Sabah had completed both doses, and more than 1.75 million individuals or 63.7 per cent had received at least one dose under the state-level National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme.
“Sabah’s target is to administer 80 per cent of the first dose and 60 per cent of the second dose by Sept 30. Therefore, the state Health Department calls on residents who have not been vaccinated to get their jabs at any of the walk-in vaccination centres nearest to them.
“For residents in rural areas or hard-to-reach areas, they can attend the outreach programmes organised in the areas to get the COVID-19 jabs,” she said in a statement, today.
Dr Rose Nani also urged eligible adults to get vaccinated as soon as they can because the COVID-19 vaccines are free for everyone, citizens or non-citizens, denying the allegations that had gone viral on social media that claimed individuals in the state are required to pay for the vaccines.
She said non-citizens are also made to believe by irresponsible quarters that they would be detained by the authorities while getting their jabs.
“This is not true. The main purpose of giving the vaccines to all is to ensure that the people living in Sabah are safe from COVID-19 infection,” she added.
In a related development, Dr Rose Nani said all adults in Beaufort and Putatan have received their first dose, while the Kinabatangan district reported the lowest vaccination rate in the state.
Meanwhile, Dr Rose Nani said the statistics from Queen Elizabeth Hospital have shown that unvaccinated individuals are at risk of developing severe complications of COVID-19 infection.
“A total of 80 to 90 per cent of patients in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) are unvaccinated. The COVID-19 vaccine is very important to each individual because it can reduce the risk of infection and death,” she added.
