Sabah receives first batch of 53,000 doses of CanSino vaccine

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah received the first batch of 53,000 doses of CanSino COVID-19 vaccine yesterday while the next batch will arrive later this month, said state health director Dr Rose Nani Mudin.

She said the single-dose CanSino vaccines will help accelerate Sabah's inoculation programme, which has seen more than 1.46 million people in the state getting their first jab and 866,228 others completing both doses as of Monday.

"A total of 53.3 per cent of the adult population in Sabah have received their first shot and 31.4 per cent have received their second shot," she said in a statement last night.

Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Hajiji Noor was reported to have said earlier that the state government had requested that the state be prioritised to receive the CanSino vaccine and asked the federal government to provide 1.8 million doses of the vaccine.

Dr Rose Nani said the state health department and the state government will continue to ramp up inoculation by intensifying outreach vaccination efforts in rural areas as well as opening more walk-in vaccination centres.

In urging everyone to get vaccinated, she said the department's data showed that 80 to 90 per cent of COVID-19 patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) were unvaccinated individuals.

"Currently, the COVID-19 infection is widespread within the community, and everyone is at risk of being infected and infecting others. At this time, prevention at the individual stage is key to stopping the spread of the virus.

"Compliance with the standard operating procedure (SOP), including wearing face masks in public and open spaces, practising physical distancing of one metre, not touching (each other) and constant washing of hands needs to be observed," she said.

Regarding late registrations, Dr Rose Nani said this happens when detected cases rise, as the workload on labs and personnel would also increase as well.

As such, she said several improvement measures are being implemented, including outsourcing, increasing the number of personnel conducting tests, extending the hours personnel are on duty in labs till midnight and increasing the test's technical capabilities.

-- BERNAMA