KOTA KINABALU: Prison inmates in Sabah have started getting their Covid-19 vaccines starting this week.

       Sabah Prisons Department director Nora Musa said she was told that the inmates were getting the single-dose CanSino vaccines.

       "For Sabah and Labuan, we have over 5,000 inmates so the single dose vaccine is suitable," she said when contacted.

       She said with the vaccination for inmates starting, it would improve the work confidence and safety aspects for prison wardens and staff of the department.

       Nora said the Covid-19 virus has hit their department and inmates quite hard, with a large number of them having contracted the virus over the past year.

       "Now we feel safer with vaccination of our prison warders as well as inmates," she said, adding that she hopes all the inmates would be vaccinated as soon as possible.

       Asked if any of the inmates had refused to be inoculated, she said she knew of none so far.

       "Prior to their vaccination, we briefed them on the importance of getting protected against the virus, the self-effects from the vaccine shots as well as the risks of infection for those who did not want to be vaccinated," Nora said.

       She explained that the inmates were also informed of the benefits of getting vaccinated, including a lower risk of suffering severe symptoms and effects if they were to contract the virus.

       As of December last year, over 1,200 inmates and wardens were reported to have contracted the virus with another few hundred more recorded in 2021.

       The Prisons Department has become a source of new Covid-19 clusters and were placed under the enhanced movement control order repeatedly for at least twice since the pandemic started.