By Olivia Miwil - July 10, 2021 @ 12:47pm
KOTA KINABALU: Sabah is targeting to vaccinate 18,000 industrial workers as part of the Public-Private Partnership Immunisation Programme (Pikas), said Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor.
He said overall, Pikas would involve workers from 407 factories located in Kota Kinabalu and nearby districts of Putatan, Penampang, Papar and Tuaran.
Initiated by the International Trade and Industry Ministry (Miti), Pikas was launched to speed up the country's vaccination process with the aim of vaccinating at least two million workers in the manufacturing sector by the third quarter of this year.
"Through Pikas, the government will roll out vaccines for free while the private sector manages the vaccine administration centres (PPV) including private medical services.
"The cost of managing the PPVs will be borne by the private sector to minimise government funding," he said after observing the first day of Pikas PPV operations at the Sabah International Convention Centre (SICC) here.
Employers will pay for their employees' vaccination costs and are not allowed to transfer such costs by deducting the employees' salary.
Hajiji also encouraged companies interested to participate in the Pikas programme to get more information and register online through www.miti.gov.my.
As of yesterday, 286,333 or 10.4 percent of the adult population had completed two doses of vaccination.
Hajiji had recently announced that a million vaccine doses will arrive in Sabah this month, and another 1.2 million doses in August.
However, despite the state government having set a target of 30,000 daily vaccine doses starting July 1, the statewide vaccination programme only achieved half the target as of yesterday.
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