KOTA KINABALU: People in Kuala Penyu, Beaufort and Sipitang should be given priority to get the Covid-19 vaccine to achieve group immunity by mid-July.
Sabah human rights activist Datuk Patrick Sindu said the locations of the three districts, which are bordering Labuan, made locals susceptible to Covid-19 infections from the Federal Territory.
He said the move was necessary to prevent the spread of the Covid-19 Delta variant that led to a spike in cases and deaths on the duty-free island.
"That is why the government needs to ensure that these three districts achieve group immunity simultaneously with Labuan.
"It is important that the people in the districts have immunity in case there are individuals from Labuan who bring the dangerous virus back to the village," he said.
The government had previously announced that the Covid-19 National Immunisation Programme would be implemented on a large scale in Labuan to achieve the group immunity target in mid-July next year.
The Covid-19 transmission situation on the island is now at an alarming level as the number of new cases is at three digits every day due to, among others, the transmission of Delta Variant (VOC) virus (B.1.617.2) or previously known as Indian variant.
To date, the administration of the complete two-doses of the Covid-19 vaccine in Kuala Penyu, Beaufort and Sipitang districts has only reached about 11 per cent of the population in those districts.
Commenting further on the vaccination programme in Sabah, Patrick said the government should implement it in the villages instead of doing it at designated vaccination centres.
He said priority should be given to villages that are far from vaccination centres by using facilities such as rural clinics, community halls or mini halls as a place to register and injections.
"The outreach programme to register and give vaccines implemented by the Health Ministry should be increased in all districts so that no one is left out from receiving vaccines.
"We need to emulate the Sarawak government's initiative which implements registration and injection directly in the field without waiting for the residents to register through methods provided such as MySejahtera," he said.
At the same time, he said the awareness on the importance of the vaccine as immunity against Covid-19 should also be expanded so that the population especially in rural areas is not affected by inaccurate information about the vaccine.
As of yesterday, a total of 359,640 individuals or 12.26 per cent of the population in Sabah had received one dose of Covid-19 vaccine, while 143,869 individuals or 4.91 per cent of the population in Sabah completed their vaccination.
The number of registered vaccine recipients reached 851,764 people or equivalent to 29.8 percent of Sabah's population as of yesterday.