78 pct of Sarawak teens aged 16-17 have received first dose

Seventy-eight per cent of Sarawak’s adolescents aged between 16 and 17 have been administered with at least the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, said Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin.

He said priority had been given to this age group because these students needed to return to school for examinations.

“Seventy-eight per cent of them have received at least one dose and this is a good achievement,” he said at a press conference.

Khairy, who earlier attended a meeting with the State Disaster Management Committee at Wisma Bapa Malaysia here yesterday, said the authorities would continue to accelerate the vaccination drive for adolescents across Sarawak.

“After this, we will give attention to those aged 12 to 15 years old. At the moment, 29 per cent of this age group have been given at least one dose,” he added.

Responding to a question, Khairy said Malaysia’s policy was to vaccinate all of those residing in the country, be they citizens, non-citizens or individuals with no legal documents.

According to him, the government has had various outreach efforts with Mercy Malaysia and Malaysian Red Crescent to accelerate the vaccination rate in the country.

“We do not reject any one who walks in our vaccination centres, whether they are Malaysians, non-citizens or those without documents.

“We have a policy – vaccines for all. And our outreach efforts with the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are still going on,” he said.