SGH clinical research for China vaccine — Dr Sim

KUCHING: The clinical research that is being carried out at Sarawak General Hospital (SGH) is a trial on the Covid19 vaccine from China, said Local Government and Housing Minister Dato Sri Dr Sim Kui Hian.

He explained that the vaccine is not the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine which the federal and state governments were waiting for.

He said he had to give this clarification to clear the misperception among some people about the vaccine trial at SGH.

“The clinical trial in SGH is for a different vaccine. The SGH has been picked as one of the eight centres throughout Malaysia to do research on a new vaccine from China.

“The selection of SGH is itself a recognition which shows that the SGH is of international standard.

“That is for a research on one of the vaccines from China. That’s why earlier on, a lot of vaccines in China were on trial in countries like Indonesia, Brazil and Peru,” he told a press conference a er witnessing the handing of offer le ers to the recipients of low cost housing units at Kampung Bunga Rampai here yesterday.

Dr Sim said according to the Ministry of Health (MOH) the Pfizer vaccine will arrive in Malaysia next month but the batch will be given to those who are vulnerable, at high risk as well as the frontliners.

He said he had told the MOH that Sarawak would also want to have its share for the frontliners and the vulnerable group as soon as the vaccine arrived.

“We have also told the MOH that the Sarawak government will pay for the vaccine so that every Sarawakian will get it.

“But before we get the vaccine, we need to be alive. That means we have to be very careful, don’t get Covid-19, don’t die of Covid19.”

On the Pfizer vaccine, he said it has to be kept in a freezer at a temperature below 70 degrees Celsius.

He said some of the hospitals in Sarawak are doing logistic trials to make sure that the vaccine can be kept at -70 degrees Celsius all the way to the interior, as the Sarawak government wants to make sure that everybody who is at high risk gets to be inoculated.

“That is why there are lots of other vaccines being tried out because they want to see if other vaccines also not need temperature of -70 degrees Celsius,” he said.

Dr Sim cautioned that Covid19 positive cases had shot up these few days in Selangor, Penang, Kuala Lumpur and Sabah, even up to over 2,000 cases a day.

He reminded that the Health director-general on Wednesday had said Malaysia was already at breaking point, meaning the hospitals were running out of rooms for patients.

He said for that reason, the director-general had talked about targeted Movement Control Order (MCO) to strengthen the fight against the spread of the coronavirus.

“We hope Sarawak will never ever go into that situation. That’s why we need every Sarawakian to help, to be united in doing our part.

“We can see the end of Covid19 but to reach the end is the most dangerous time. If we are not careful we may not be able to reach the end; you ‘bye bye’ before you are vaccinated.

“If we look at the past, we never had Covid-19 case in longhouses, but now we got positive cases in the longhouses in Meradong, Kapit and in Sri Aman. That means Sarawakians will have to be more careful than before,” he said.

The clinical trial in SGH is for a different vaccine. The SGH has been picked as one of the eight centres throughout Malaysia to do research on a new vaccine from China. The selection of SGH is itself a recognition which shows that the SGH is of international standard. Dato Sri Dr Sim Kui Hian