KUCHING, April 1 — Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin commended how the Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) managed its Covid-19 Vaccination Programme, said Sarawak Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas.

"The prime minister was very happy to see our vaccination facilities and the number of vaccinators done, as well as the smoothness of our vaccination programme,” said Uggah, who is also the SDMC chairman.

He said during the committee’s discussion with Muhyiddin, who is on a two-day official visit to Sarawak, the SDMC showed to the prime minister its readiness to conduct the vaccination programme all over the state.

According to him, more than 1.2 million Sarawakians or 66.7 per cent of the entire 2.8 million population of the state had already registered for the vaccination.

"We appealed to him (prime minister) for Kuala Lumpur to speed up the supply of the vaccines to Sarawak because Sarawakians are ready to receive the vaccines,” he told reporters after accompanying Muhyiddin on his visit to the vaccination centre at Stadium Perpaduan in Petra Jaya, here, today.

Also accompanying the prime minister during the visit were Sarawak Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg, Deputy Chief Minister III Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan, State Local Government and Housing Minister Datuk Seri Dr Sim Kui Hian and Sarawak Health director Dr Chin Zin Hing.

"We have also conveyed to him (Muhyiddin) that we need more vaccine supply and hope Kuala Lumpur (federal government) will consider accelerating the vaccination process in Sarawak’s red zones. He agreed but then it would depend on the supply of vaccines from overseas,” Uggah said.

He said the Sarawak government was also pursuing its own initiative to buy the vaccines to complement the supply from Putrajaya with Dr Sim and his team now pursuing the initiative and had been in touch with their contacts.

He also said that the Sarawak government had always recognised the role played by the media as frontliners and was now working to enable media personnel to be given the Covid-19 vaccination just like other frontliners. — Bernama