KOTA KINABALU: Sabah is on track to reach 40,000 Covid-19 vaccine jabs per day by this week, as more vaccines come in and capacities are increased in vaccine administration centres (PPV).

       Sabah health director Dr Rose Nani Mudin said the state had already reached the 30,000 mark on Wednesday.

       “We are now re-strategising the flow at vaccine centres and how to distribute vaccines properly to places that need more, such as high-density areas.

       “At the moment, we continuously receive vaccine supply despite a delay of maybe one or two days.

       “What we need to do now is to convince those who have refused to get registered for the vaccination,” she said on the sidelines of Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor’s visit to Universiti Malaysia Sabah PPV yesterday.

       She was addressing concerns about Sabah being one of the states with the lowest vaccination rates so far.

       On suggestions of allowing walk-in registrations and vaccinations, she said they were already reaching out to rural villagers through the mobile outreach programme.

       “We also need to remember that there are those who have registered via the MySejahtera app but have yet to receive an appointment for vaccination, so before we can consider walk-ins, we need to clear this list first.

       “But at the same time, we also give priority to senior citizens who walk in and do not know how to use the app,” she explained.

       State Local Government and Housing Minister Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun, who is Sabah Covid-19 spokesperson, earlier disclosed that the state would receive over one million vaccine doses this month.

       To date, the total number of vaccines received in July stands at 747,980 doses, with another delivery of 30,000 expected today and the next batch of 308,880 doses scheduled to arrive on July 28.

       Meanwhile, Hajiji, after visiting the PPV at the university campus, said at least 50% to 60% of Sabah’s population were expected to be immunised by October.

       He added that there was a slight delay in Sabah getting the vaccines due to the suppliers encountering a late delivery to the country.

       Asked whether the Sabah government planned to buy its own vaccines with 14 million Sinovac vaccine doses set to be made available for sale to interested states and companies, Hajiji said for now they would be relying on the vaccines provided by the Federal Government.

       “We need about 2.7 million of the Sabah population to be vaccinated (to reach herd immunity).

       “We hope the Federal Government and Health Ministry will accommodate this,” he added.