Vaccine: 20 to 35 pct recipients fail to turn up at UMS PPV

KOTA KINABALU: As many as 20 to 35 per cent of vaccine recipients did not turn up for their appointments at the vaccination centre (PPV) in Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) here daily as set in the MySejahtera application.

UMS hospital director, Prof Dr Helen Benedict Lasimbang said the situation creates difficulties for UMS PPV to meet the target of 3,000 doses of vaccine daily.

"We also find it very difficult to find replacements. Our target is 3,000 doses a day and we are giving appointments for up to 4,000 doses. However, we still cannot meet the target because of absentees.

"I hope all residents in Sabah will check their MySejahtera everyday.

"All residents should come according to the appointments given by MySejahtera, apart from updating the application frequently.

"We are very serious about providing protection against COVID-19," she told reporters here, today.

Dr Helen said the UMS PPV, which opened on June 14, could only give 1,000 COVID-19 doses a day initially before it was upgraded to 1,500 doses a day last week and to 3,000 doses a day this week.

Earlier, Dr Helen, together with the media, inspected the UMS traffic flow which was now no longer congested after several improvements were done.

Among the improvements was changing the location of the MySejahtera application scanner from the main gate to the inside of the PPV area.

-- BERNAMA