He said the state government supported the appeal by Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin during the 23rd Asean-China Summit yesterday to make the availability of such vaccines to Malaysia a top priority.

“Chief Minister Abang Johari Openg has also pledged to allocate funds for the purpose (to make the vaccines available),” he said during his winding-up speech at the state assembly today.

Uggah, who is also the Sarawak Disaster Management Committee chairman, said the state government had spent RM96 million from March to October to curb the spread of Covid-19.

In managing Covid-19, he said, the committee had adopted the policy of full containment to “trace, test, quarantine and isolate” when there was a positive case.

To ensure the success of the policy, it had implemented various strategies funded by the state government, such as free quarantine and swab tests for returning Sarawakians, providing adequate quarantine centres, medical equipment and food supply as well as logistics support for frontliners.

“We distribute food aid to those in need, especially during the EMCO and TEMCO (enhanced and targeted enhanced movement control orders) periods, support returning Sarawakian teachers and students, and ensure all 12 divisional disaster committees have sufficient operational funds.

“We have also set up and enforced the use of enterSarawak and the e-Health declaration form to track and regulate the movements of people entering and exiting the state,” he said.

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