Sarawak to review vaccination of under-18s
The Sarawak government has asked the state Covid-19 Vaccination Advisory Group (SCOVAG) to evaluate whether those below 18 years of age should also be inoculated against Covid-19, according to state Disaster Management Committee adviser Sim Kui Hian.
He said that out of the 836 positive Covid-19 cases that were reported in Sarawak yesterday, 260 cases comprised people under 18 years old.
“As Sarawak has been vaccinated far ahead of the country, and about 29 percent of our population is younger than 18 years old, we should not wait...
The Sarawak government has asked the state Covid-19 Vaccination Advisory Group (SCOVAG) to evaluate whether those below 18 years of age should also be inoculated against Covid-19, according to state Disaster Management Committee adviser Sim Kui Hian.
He said that out of the 836 positive Covid-19 cases that were reported in Sarawak yesterday, 260 cases comprised people under 18 years old.
“As Sarawak has been vaccinated far ahead of the country, and about 29 percent of our population is younger than 18 years old, we should not wait for the National Immunisation Programme (NIP) to come up with a policy on this particular age group.
"I have asked SCOVAG to evaluate whether this group should also be vaccinated,” Sim said in a Facebook statement today.
He said that despite recording the second-highest number of daily cases in the state by far, very few of the cases were in Categories 3, 4 or 5, adding, however, that citizens needed to remain vigilant as the number of infected persons may still affect the hospital system.
According to Sim, 114 cases, or 13.6 percent out of the 836 cases, were from unvaccinated individuals and 116 cases, or 13.8 percent, were from those who had only been administered their first dose.
Sim, who is also the state’s local government and housing minister, claimed that the number of those in the first-dose category will be fewer in the near future as almost 99.9 percent of them will follow up with a second dose.
He said 346 of the 836 cases reported yesterday were individuals who have already been administered two doses, but further analysis needs to be done on how many of them were infected after 14 days.
Individuals are only considered fully vaccinated 14 days after receiving the second dose of the Pfizer, Sinovac or AstraZenaca vaccine and 28 days after being administered with single-dose Johnson&Johnson or CanSino vaccine.
Meanwhile, Sim said 645, or 77 percent, of the toal cases reported yesterday originated from Kuching, Samarahan and Serian districts.
He added that this could be due to high population density, mobility and networking.
More than 414 cases in Sarawak yesterday were from active clusters, including Kampung Bintawa Ulu (111), Melikin (107), Kampung Bunuk (64), Kampung Git (47) and Kampung Bintawa Tengah (26), among others.
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