By Olivia Miwil - September 15, 2021 @ 7:08pm
KOTA KINABALU: Sabah will proceed with inoculating teenagers despite the vaccination rate among its adult population still being below 80 per cent.
Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor said the vaccinations would start tomorrow for those aged between 12 and 17.
He said the matter was decided at the cabinet meeting here today.
"This was also in line with the Health Ministry's stand to get as many adolescents in the high-risk group to be vaccinated. It is also in anticipation of the reopening of schools starting Oct 3," he said in a statement.
As of yesterday, 51.9 per cent, or 1,431,093, of adults in Sabah have been fully vaccinated.
During his visit to Sabah earlier this month, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said the government was setting a threshold that a state could vaccinate those below 18 once 80 per cent of its adult population completed their vaccination.
However, for the past two weeks, the daily vaccination rate in Sabah had fallen to around 40,000 out of targeted 60,000 doses.
State Immunisation Operations director Shahelmey Yahya had also said the drop in the rate of vaccinations was due to the population at rural areas and Sabah's east coast.
He had said these people were either reluctant to come forward or difficult to reach.
However, authorities said more than 130 outreach programmes would be held in the next two months for those who have yet to be vaccinated.
Today, Sabah recorded 2,015 Covid-19 cases with a new cluster recorded in Sungai Bendera, Kinabatangan.
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