KOTA KINABALU, Feb 14 — Sabah recorded only 9,686, or 2.35 per cent, of the 411,400 children aged five to 11, who received the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine under the National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme for Children (PICKids), so far.
State Local Government and Housing Minister, Datuk Masidi Manjun, said the figure was very low, considering the high risk of infection, and the number of children under age of 11 who are being infected every day.
Therefore, Masidi, who is also the state government COVID-19 spokesperson, urged parents in the state to take the initiative for children aged five to 11 to be vaccinated against the virus.
“Today, a total of 272 new patients are children aged five to 11, who should be eligible to have received the vaccine,” he said in a statement tonight.
Meanwhile, Masidi said a total of 4,035 new cases were recorded today, bringing the cumulative number of the cases in Sabah to 278,295, with five deaths reported, one each in Sandakan, Beaufort, Kuala Penyu, Lahad Datu and Kota Kinabalu.
“Sporadic infection cases recorded the highest percentage of 61.07 per cent of the total number of new cases today,” he said, adding that there was still a high probability of non-compliance to standard operating procedures, despite numerous calls from the government.
He also said that a total of 893 COVID-19 patients have recovered and been discharged from hospitals and Quarantine and Low-Risk Treatment Centres today, bringing the cumulative total of recoveries to 245,615 people; while 2,885 patients are still receiving treatment.
