Less crowded, more orderly experience for senior citizens in Sibu getting second jab
SIBU: Over 800 senior citizens who received their second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid19 vaccine at the Sibu Indoor Stadium yesterday found less crowded conditions and a more orderly experience after some improvements had been implemented.
Sibu Division Disaster Management Committee (SDDMC) coordinator Dr Annuar Rapa’ee said this included creating waiting zones for vaccine recipients based on their appointment time.
“Those scheduled to receive their vaccine at 9am are placed in one zone and it is similar for others based on their time slots. This means there ‘s no congestion and the recipients are called into the vaccination area according to their turn,” he told reporters during his visit to the centre.
He said yesterday’s recipients were the first batch of PfizerBioNTech vaccine recipients here under the second phase of National Covid-19 Immunisation
Programme, who received their first dose on April 19.
Dr Annuar said the improvements were made following the crowded situation during the vaccination process for second batch recipients last Friday.
The centre was filled with vaccine recipients who did not arrive according to the time allocated for their appointment, he said.
“Small and limited waiting areas also contributed to congestion by members of the public at one or two tents there last Friday. This is why we have asked them to come to the centre based on their vaccination schedule. This is important because we do not want to cause another outbreak,” he explained.
Last Friday, over 100 individuals scheduled to receive their first dose of the Sinovac vaccine failed to show up for their appointment, he said, adding that there were also some who came but were rejected due to high blood pressure during the health pre-screening process.
“There was only one individual who rejected the Sinovac vaccine. He will be given an option for another type of Covid19 vaccine in the next batch,” said Dr Annuar.
He said vaccination for the third batch of recipients under the same phase of vaccination programme here should commence this May 18.
“We do not have the schedule yet,” he said, without elaborating further.
Separately, he said almost 70 per cent of those eligible to receive Covid-19 vaccines in Sibu had registered using both MySejahtera application and manual registration.
“We are now in the process of transferring data from manual registration to MySejahtera,” he said.
Among the recipients who received his second dose yesterday was a 99-year-old man.