According to the national Covid.19 vaccination plan, the vaccination programme will end in Feb 2022. By then 2,240,000 Sarawakians would have been fully vaccinated, if everything goes according to plan.
Today, Sarawak’s Health Department director Dr Chin Zin Hing is on record saying that as at last Wednesday, 28th Apr 2021, a total 52,960 Sarawakians, comprising mostly frontliners have been fully vaccinated. Among this total are also the wakil rakyats or ADUNs.
https://www.theborneopost.com/2021/04/29/52960-people-fully-vaccinated-against-covid-19-in-sarawak-dr-chin/
The medical front liners had to be vaccinated first because they are the foot soldiers in this battle against Covid.19, fighting and putting their lives on the line everyday that other Sarawakians may live. The wakil rakyats or the ADUNs have all been fully vaccinated because they are the privilege group, made the privileged by the votes of those who are still waiting in the queue to be vaccinated.
The first phase of the vaccination in Sarawak started on the 26th Feb 2021 with CM Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari among the first few to be vaccinated. This means that as at the 28th Apr 2021, we are already 61 days into the vaccination process. With 52,960 Sarawakians having been fully vaccinated, Sarawak is averaging an average of 868 people being fully vaccinated daily.
Sarawak has a population of roughly 2.8 million people. To achieve herd immunity, about 2.2 million Sarawakians will have to be fully vaccinated by 28th Feb 2022. At a daily average of 868 people per day, it will take 7 years from now before Sarawak achieves herd immunity.
Registration For Covid.19 Vaccination
In today’s (Friday, 30th Apr 2021) issue of the Borneo Post, the chief advisor to the Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) Dato Dr. Sim Kui Hian is reported as saying that Sarawak supply of vaccine may exceed recipients.
There are at least two ways on interpreting this: 1. That the registrations for Covid.19 vaccination is well below what it should be, for reasons either not known or that cannot be made public. 2. For reasons best known to the Sarawak GPS government, their stated intention to buy the Covid.19 vaccines is not practicable and has to be abandoned. The confirmed registration numbers against available vaccines will justify them not proceeding with their plans to buy the vaccines outside the national plan managed by the federal government.
What are the possible reasons contributing to the low registration among Sarawakians? Surely it cannot be because Sarawakians do not value their lives or they have lost their desire to return to normalcy.
According to Dr. Sim K.H, of the 1.2 million registrations in the books, 868,000 was made online via the MySejahtera app while about 300,000 made manually. Two things can be said here: 1. The Sarawak GPS government has failed miserably to provide internet connectivity to Sarawakians that only 31% of all Sarawakians have access to internet and was able to register for vaccination online. 2. There was very little efforts made the Sarawak GPS government to register rural based Sarawakians that we have to asked why was there an urgent need to vaccinate the privileged ADUNs for rural areas. Only 300,000 manual registrations was recorded.
The end result of this is that rural based Sarawakians may not get to be vaccinated at all or they will have to endure a long wait in the queue. And all this makes us wonder, is the GPS government people centric or perihatin rakyat as they often claimed to be?
https://www.theborneopost.com/2021/04/21/ulu-baram-covid-19-vaccine-roll-out-in-doubt-due-to-moh-requirement-says-dennis/
Breaking The Chain Of Transmission Of Covid.19
Yesterday was another day of misery for Sarawak. There were 522 new cases recorded, bringing the total to 29,899 cases since the pandemic started in Sarawak. There were 2 new fatalities, bringing the Covid.19 related death tally to 173. The number of death involving people in their 30s and early 50s too have increased. Equally critical, as at yesterday, there was only 1 green zone left in Sarawak. Our public hospitals are stretched to the limits.
https://www.theborneopost.com/2021/04/28/covid-19-tanjung-manis-turns-orange-simunjan-sole-green-zone-in-sarawak/
Our public hospitals are stretched to the limits and surely our medical front liners are drained and stressed beyond words. Images of burning funeral pyres in Delhi, India comes to mind.
https://codeblue.galencentre.org/2021/04/26/sarawak-general-hospital-hits-full-capacity-for-covid19-patients/
There was a time when Sarawakians were hopeful. Our leaders in the GPS government spoke about how Sarawaks’ autonomous power will stem the tide on Covid.19 and that Sarawak will make sure that enough vaccines will be available in Sarawak so that no Sarawak will be left behind.
Up until Oct 2020, the numbers of Covid.19 infections did not cause numbing fears among Sarawakians. It looked like it was under control. Then it all went wrong in Nov 2020.
Where did it all go wrong? Simply put, the GPS government failed to do the necessary to break the chain of transmission. Why for example was surge or mass testing of all Sarawakians, to identify all asymptomatic people and isolate them not done? We live on an island and that should have made it relatively easier to contain the virus. Why were entry points into Sarawak not sealed in the early days? I suspect that because we were approaching the state elections, selfish requests from groups with vested interest or from groups which the GPS deemed to be their votes bank were entertained and this rendered successive MCOs ineffective.
How long do we want to leave our fate in GPS hands. Renung renung lah.
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