KUCHING: The vaccines are silver bullets to work against the deadly Covid-19 virus but they are not coming fast enough yet, said Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) Stakan branch chairman Datuk Sim Kiang Chiok.
He wished that one could be safe from Covid-19 by simply adhering to the standard operating procedure (SOP) but said the best protection was to be vaccinated, adding that there should be no more vaccine hesitancy.
“However, the vaccine or silver bullets are not coming fast enough yet, and the fear of infection starts to grow more intense with each passing day — with the infection rates in Sarawak that are so high, it is giddy to read,” he said in a statement today.
“When will all these silver bullets arrive? The promised 380,000 doses per week by our Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin have just started to arrive this week,” he said.
He said when this supply could be maintained, Sarawak would be able to have more than one million doses a month and vaccinate 80 percent of its population by August this year in order to achieve herd immunity.
He said the mental stress stemming from fear of Covid-19 infection felt since March last year was indeed great, adding that he would experience significant relief once he was vaccinated and safe from the virus.
“I would be able to thank God, our Sarawak government, Health Ministry (MoH), and frontliners that I will be able to carry on with my life again in the old normal soon, where we can resume our social nature of meeting our family members and friends, have our dinners with family and relatives, and be in public events and gatherings as well as travel again,” said Sim.
He said then businesses and jobs would be able to return and generate a more prosperous environment once more.
“The feeling of gratefulness that I will be safe from the virus when I am vaccinated would spur me to carry on living on a more meaningful way, to serve all, especially my family and my society,” he said.
“Give me any approved vaccine and I know that even after the first dose I will be safe from hospitalisation and death due to Covid-19,” he said.
He stated that this could be seen in the United Kingdom, whereby to-date they had vaccinated about 41 million of their population with the first dose while about 28.5 million had been fully vaccinated with the second dose, drastically reducing the rate of infections and deaths.
“The greatest gift in life is the gift to live, and the vaccine will be the best gift that I wish upon myself, my family, and all Sarawakians soon. Let’s get registered for vaccination,” he said.
At the same time, Sim urged everyone to adhere to the SOP in the meantime until herd immunity has been achieved.
