By Olivia Miwil - July 6, 2021 @ 6:14pm
KOTA KINABALU: Sabah recorded a rise in child abuse and domestic violence cases during the Covid-19 pandemic, said state Community Development and People's Well-being Minister Shahelmey Yahya.
He said, as of June 30, the ministry had received 406 cases with most of them being related to violence against children and spouses.
"Last year, there were 17 child abuse cases while the first six months of this year, there were already 16 cases.
"As for domestic violence, the state reported 357 cases last year while for the first half of this year, there were 222 cases," he said after the launch of the Sabah Telechat Hotline at a radio station here.
Shahelmey added that the "We Care, We Help" 24-hour hotline at 011-25254232 under the Sabah Welfare Services Department was aimed at giving support especially in mental health for the people during the pandemic.
"We want the community in Sabah to stay strong and resilient during this difficult time. The government will continue to assist and hope the people will come forward to ask for help," he said.
Aside from the Sabah government 3.0 Bantuan Prihatin, he also urged local community leaders, non-governmental organisations and members of parliament to help the people.
As for the vaccination programme, Shahelmey said the state government had asked for more vaccines to be supplied.
"We were informed that the state will be getting 700,000 doses in July. But, when we calculated, the supply will not be enough to achieve the target of administering 30,000 doses daily.
"The Sabah government has voiced out, urging the federal government to add more vaccines," he said, adding that the state was expected to receive more than 140,000 doses for this week.
For the past one week, the daily statistics of vaccination showed less than 15,000.
Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor had said the Public-Private Partnership Covid-19 Industry Immunisation Programme (PIKAS) was also put on hold due to shortage of vaccines.
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