Sarawak spent RM300 million in managing the COVID-19 pandemic throughout the implementation of the National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme, said Deputy Premier Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas.
He said this included expenditure on support services like transporting vaccines to the rural and interior areas, financing COVID-19 quarantine and treatment centres, and conducting swap tests.
“In September 2021, Sarawak registered up to 5,000 cases a day. For every positive case, we needed to test ten close contacts, with the cost of swab tests borne by us,” he told reporters after attending an ‘Appreciation Night for Central Zone COVID-19 Frontliners’ here last night.
About 1,000 frontline staff from various government agencies in central Sarawak attended the event.
Uggah, who is Sarawak Disaster Management Committee chairman, said the take-up rate for the second booster shot was still low in Sarawak.
“So far only 7.1 per cent of those eligible have taken the second booster. This is very low. We ask those who have yet to receive it to do so immediately,” he added. – Bernama