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Kota Kinabalu: A Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) leader has criticised federal authorities after only 53,000 doses of the CanSino vaccine were delivered to the state.

Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) president Yong Teck Lee, who is also a Perikatan Nasional (PN) deputy chairman, was disappointed that Sabah was only given a fourth of the 200,000 doses that were brought in to the country recently.

This is after the assurance by former vaccines minister Khairy Jamaluddin to chief minister Hajiji Noor that Sabah would be given priority over the single-dose vaccine from China.

Yong said the quantity delivered to Sabah makes up only 3% of the 1.8 million doses of CanSino vaccines requested by the state government.

“This is unacceptable,” he said, in a statement here today.

“Therefore, I repeat my earlier demand that the supply of CanSino vaccines from China be sent directly to Sabah without having to go through the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), to avoid the vaccines from being diverted elsewhere.

”The federal authorities must be fair to Sabah and ensure that all vaccination centres (PPVs) in Sabah operate at maximum capacity.”

Sabah health director Dr Rose Nani Mudin yesterday said the state had received the first batch of 53,000 doses of CanSino vaccine, with the next batch scheduled to arrive later this month.

She said the single-dose CanSino vaccines will help accelerate the state’s immunisation programme, which has seen more than 1.46 million getting their first dose and 866,228 others being fully vaccinated as of Monday.

In his statement today, Yong, who is a former chief minister, also pointed out the irony in Malasia being praised for its high vaccination rate when Sabah is still left far behind.

“We are proud that Malaysia has the highest vaccination rate in the world but in Sabah, we are forced to accept the unsatisfactory rate of only 31.4% (as of Aug 24) of people who have completed the second dose, the lowest rate in Malaysia.

“At the same time, there are PPVs in Sabah which are forced to postpone the vaccination process at the last minute due to insufficient vaccines,” he said.

For example, he said, according to a news report, the Dewan Pa‘ Musa PPV in the Beaufort southwestern district was able to administer only 100 doses today.

Yong said Sabah placed high hopes that the CanSino vaccine could speed up the immunisation process, especially for people in rural areas who have difficulties accessing the PPVs.

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