LABUAN (Bernama): Labuan has launched a drive-through vaccination exercise on Tuesday (July 6) to speed up its immunisation programme ahead of its target of achieving herd immunity by end of this month.

       Labuan Health Department director Dr Ismuni Bohari said currently the drive-through located at University Malaysia Sabah Labuan International Campus’ (UMSKAL) parking lot is limited to second dose recipients of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

       "We expect the turnout will be significant beginning July 8, as most of the first dose recipients should get their second shot as close to the recommended three-week interval as possible,” he told Bernama at the launching site here on Tuesday.

       He said the vaccination exercise was in collaboration with UMSKAL, People’s Representative Council and Labuan Disaster Management Committee.

       Meanwhile, Dr Ismuni said Labuan had vaccinated 55,572 people or 81.1 per cent of the total 68,500 adult population under the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme as of Monday (July 5), with 18,019 of them having completed their second dose.

       He said the opening up of three vaccine administering centres (PPVs) at the Labuan Matriculation College (LMC) on June 17, Taman Mutiara Blok L (June 22) and Dewan Foo Chow (June 29), in addition to the two existing centres at Dewan Darul Kifayah and Dewan Sri Labuan have boosted the number of vaccinations from between 900 to 1,100 doses per day to more than 3,000 doses per day over the last two weeks.

       Dr Ismuni said the walk-in vaccination exercise which was first implemented at LMC and later extended to Dewan Sri Labuan has seen more than 1,000 people vaccinated daily, and this has greatly helped the vaccination drive in the federal territory.

       He also attributed the achievement as a result of close cooperation between the Labuan Disaster Management Committee members and the locals.

       Labuan has also seen a surge in the number of people registering for vaccination through MySejahtera, with 85.3 per cent of the adult population registered as of today compared to 40.8 per cent on June 1.- Bernama