KOTA KINABALU: Sabah appreciates the Federal Government's willingness to keep the state at Phase Two of the National Recovery Plan (NRP) despite rising Covid-19 cases.

       “The Sabah government is thankful to the Federal Government for allowing us to move into the second phase of the NRP and keeping us there," Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor (pic) said.

       Sabah moved into the second phase on July 10 but has since seen rising numbers of cases especially through August, with the daily infections hovering above 2,000 and breaching the 3,000 mark four times.

       In a statement on Monday (Sept 6), Hajiji said Sabah hopes to achieve the vaccination target for its adult population by October.

       As of Sept 4, he said, 44.8% of the targeted 2.84 million adult population have been fully vaccinated and 63.7% have received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine.

       “We are confident that with our vaccination centres across the state able to vaccinate up to 83,140 a day, we will get 80% of the population vaccinated in October," Hajiji said after meeting Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin, who is on a two-day working visit to Sabah.

       Hajiji also thanked Putrajaya for sending 1,056,360 doses of vaccine in July and 1,650,510 doses in August.

       So far this month, the state has received 765,920 doses.

       Hajiji said Sabah still needed 2,672,645 doses to meet its 80% adult vaccination target.

       "This does not include plans to inoculate 122,190 adolescents registered under MySejahtera as of Sept 4," he added.

       Hajiji also thanked the Health Ministry for its efforts to push the single-dose CanSino vaccine through the mobile outreach programme.

       He also thanked Khairy for facilitating the immediate supply of medical equipment including oxygen cylinders and oxygen regulators, as well as ambulances and medicines needed by hospitals in the state to battle the pandemic.