KOTA KINABALU: Huge crowds of people have turned up at vaccination centres statewide after Sabah allowed walk-ins from Aug 11.

       “This shows people are concerned about getting inoculated,” said the minister in charge of Covid-19 matters in Sabah, Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun.

       “Everything is done in an orderly manner with SOP in place. This is a sign that more people realise the need for vaccination,” he said.

       Photos of large crowds waiting at vaccination centres, including the Sabah International Convention Centre (SICC), have been making their rounds on social media, with many asking if such situations would create new clusters.

       There are many vaccination centres statewide and instead of looking at such gatherings negatively, Masidi wants to look at this differently.“It shows people are taking vaccination seriously,” he said, adding that health officials had also started to give in-situ jabs in enhanced movement control order areas.

       Sabah Health Department director Dr Rose Nani Mudin said since walk-in vaccination was opened to the public, the rate increased from 40,000 to 50,000 vaccinations a day.

       On Aug 13, a total of 54,091 were vaccinated while 52,133 received their jabs the next day, she added.

       She said these included walk-in first and second dose recipients.

       “This is one of the innovative measures to overcome the low registration for vaccination,” Dr Rose said, adding that they also intensified outreach to remote areas in Sabah.

       She said out of these walk-in jab recipients, some 30% were non-citizens.