Adopt Labuan approach to accelerate herd immunity in Sabah

KOTA KINABALU: The Federation of Chinese Associations (FCAS) has urged the federal government to adopt the ‘Labuan approach’ for Sabah, so that it could complete two doses of vaccine to achieve herd immunity, as soon as possible.

Its president, Tan Sri T.C Goh, noted that, it has been widely reported that the numbers of daily Covid-19 cases in the Federal Territory of Labuan have dropped significantly recently, after a vast majority of its population has completed two doses of Covid-19 vaccine.

He said the latest official data indicated that Sabah is currently still the state with lowest vaccination rate in the country, either one dose or two doses. Hence, there’s an urgent need for the federal government to strive harder to better improve the vaccination rate in Sabah.

Goh was commenting on Health Ministry directorgeneral Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah’s recent statement that the numbers of daily Covid-19 cases in Labuan have dropped significantly recently, and the hospitals there were no longer congested; this was following a boost in the vaccination rate with completion of two doses of vaccine among its population.

In his posting in Facebook on Sunday, Dr Noor Hisham noted that as of Saturday, 61.9 per cent of the population in Labuan has completed first dose of vaccination, and 42.7 per cent completed the second dose; 90 per cent of those who completed the first dose of vaccination are 18 years and above, and 62per cent of adults have completed the second dose.

Goh who is also president of the Federation of Sabah and Labuan Hokkien Associations (FSLHA), thus hoped the federal government could expedite the implementation of the Labuan approach for Sabah.

He said since the federal government had indicated that there is sufficient vaccine supply, even for the ‘Plan B’, it should thus ramp up vaccination program for all the states, Sabah included, to complete two doses of vaccine, so as to achieve herd immunity as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, Goh who is also a member of Sabah Economic Advisory Council (SEAC) also welcomed and supported the statement by the new Sabah health director, Dr Rose Nani Mudin that her department is in the midst of mobilizing all its 26,000 healthcare workers to improve vaccination process throughout the state.

He thus hoped such a move would receive the full cooperation and support of the federal government and the Ministry of Health (MOH).Dr Rose who officially reported for duty on July 13, has said that efforts including increasing the doses of vaccines at vaccination centres (PPV) statewide are being implemented to speed up the immunisation rate in Sabah.