Earlier today, former chief minister Salleh Said Keruak had urged Putrajaya to focus its attention on vaccinating Sabahans, saying Sabah had been left behind for too long with the lowest vaccination rate in Malaysia.

Now, state Umno secretary Jafry Ariffin has waded into the issue, saying the distribution of vaccines into Sabah must be fair and balanced especially with the state having 2,758,400 people eligible for immunisation.

Jafry, who is also state tourism, culture and environment minister, accused the federal government of being unfair in the distribution, which he said also reflected its poor management of the vaccination programme.

He called for Putrajaya to expedite the supply of vaccines to Sabah as well as to be transparent on the issue considering that many residents in the state have yet to receive their vaccination appointments.

Like Salleh, he too claimed that Putrajaya had left Sabah far behind other states under the national Covid-19 immunisation programme based on the vaccination rate.

“Up to July 17, the vaccination rate has only reached 13%, involving 358,592 people,” he said, in a statement here today.

In order to achieve a 40% rate, Jafry said the state must receive a minimum of 1,489,536 doses between now and the middle of August to vaccinate the rest of the population.

He stressed that the state’s road to economic recovery can only be achieved through effective vaccination of its people.

“Sabah’s dependence on the tourism industry is also high but in order to reopen the sector, we must achieve at least a 60% vaccination rate.

“If we can achieve herd immunity this October, then we can definitely restart domestic tourism, followed by opening up the state’s borders to international guests,” he said.