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Sarawak to evaluate Covid-19 vaccination for those below 18

KUCHING: About 31 per cent of the 836 Covid-19 cases reported in Sarawak yesterday involved those below 18-years-old, who are still not eligible to be vaccinated.

Local Government and Housing Minister Datuk Seri Dr Sim Kui Hian said the state has instructed the Sarawak Covid-19 Advisory Group (Scovag) to evaluate the Covid-19 vaccination for those below 18.

"As Sarawak's Covid-19 National Immunisation Programme is far ahead of others in the country and about 29 per cent of our population is younger than 18, we have asked Scovag to evaluate this group on vaccination instead of waiting for the federal decision and policy," he said.

Dr Sim, who is also the Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) advisor, had advised the people to be on high alert following a drastic increase of Covid-19 cases yesterday.

"We need to be on high alert but do not panic as all the cases reported yesterday have no or mild symptoms, including 710 cases in Category 1 (no symptoms) and 126 cases in Category 2 (mild symptoms).

"There weren't any in Categories 3, 4 and 5," he said in a Facebook post.

He also said out of the total 836 positive cases yesterday, 260 cases (31 per cent) were below 18 years old, 114 cases (13.6 per cent) not vaccinated, 116 cases (13.8 per cent) had received the first dose and 346 cases (41.4 per cent) had completed the second dose.

More than 70 per cent of the cases were reported in Kuching, Samarahan and Serian due to high density, mobility and networking.

Dr Sim said Sarawak managed to prevent its hospitals from being overwhelmed despite the Delta variant due to the high vaccination rate, which had reduced the severity of the Covid-19 cases and fatalities.

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