Sebastian Ting suggests more vaccination centres to be set up in Miri

suppadmin | June 7, 2021

Piasau assemblyman Datuk Sebastian Ting would suggested that in anticipation of the arrival of more vaccines coming to Miri this month and next month July, more Vaccination Centres should be set up and put in place in order to prepare the division for vaccination surge in our efforts to achieve herd immunity for Miri population.

Ting said currently, the vaccination rate in Miri is still at a low rate, estimated at less than 2000 persons per day, which could be due to the inadequate or slow arrival of vaccines to the division.

“At the population of 200,000 people here, to achieve at least 75 percent herd immunity by end of August, it would take about 100 days to complete the vaccination rollout. Therefore, we may need to have between 8,000 to 10,000 people to be vaccinated per day,” said Ting.

With that in mind, several options have been proposed, after discussion with Mayor Adam Yii and some concerned friends in Miri, to make the vaccination surge possible, he revealed.

“We discussed on the availability of venues that could possibly convert into vaccination centres (PPV), and there are several schools that would fit in the checklist as PPV.

“We are given to understand that Private medical centres such as Borneo Medical Centre and Columbia Asia as well as few private clinics have been appointed as PPV,. Some may have space constraint and thus may only be able to vaccinate a certain number of people at any one time per day. . However if an arrangement can be made for these private practices to utilise these schools’ spaces, these PPV could increase their capacity.”

With bigger space, he added, it is also crucial to have increased human resources, therefore seeking retired nurses, doctors, volunteers’ nurse/doctors from other clinics could help to speed up the rollout too.

Ting said Miri could emulate the method practised by Chinese government, which utilizes public bus as mobile vaccination centres

In addition, mobile vaccination team can be set up and they can consider to make arrangements to bring the vaccine to specific Clan organisations or institutions to vaccinate their members and spouses.

These Clan organisations or Institutions can indeed provide adequate human resources, for example members of their women and youth sections, to assist in this vaccination program.

“This will certainly help to speed up the vaccinations of their members of such organisations or institutions” he said.

The above arrangement can also be considered for big companies.

With that being said, Ting is in full agreement of the announcement by YB Dato Sri Dr Sim Kui Hian that Sarawak Government will now use hybrid manual registration for rural areas. This hybrid manual should also be allowed in town areas, especially our senior citizens as majority of them does not have smart phone.

“The central database of MySejahtera handles the information of Malaysians nationwide.

We have heard of numerous complaints about Mysejahtera during this registration and subsequent notifications of dates and places of vaccinations of vaccinees. Some of our Miri people have their stories to tell.

Indeed Mysejahtera is far from perfect and there are many weaknesses.

For now, vaccination is extremely important. There are more deaths now and more people are being infected.

Vaccination first and registration with Mysejahtera can be done later.

We must aim to provide fast and easy vaccination to our Miri people as soon as possible.

Miri people cannot wait any longer. Time is of the essence.

“The above proposal is intended to increase the rate of vaccination when the promised vaccines arrive Miri this month and next month, reaching about 150,000 people in about 23 days for first dose and another 21 days for second dose.

“A special Committee should be formed and it is proposed that this Special Committee be headed by Mayor Adam Yii with the sole objective of speedy delivery of vaccine to the people of Miri.. This suggestion is made with the good intention of easing the already overstretched Miri Division Disaster Management Committee (MDDMC) and other agencies during this challenging time,” said Ting.