Vaccination rate speeds up - The Star Online
PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s Covid-19 vaccination rate is seeing a big boost despite criticism over its pace.
A breakdown of daily figures released by the Special Committee on Covid-19 Vaccine Supply shows that the daily number of jabs has shot up in recent weeks, reaching a record high of 83,648 on Wednesday.
Of the 83,648 jabs, 49,722 were for the first dose while the remaining 33,926 were second dose jabs.
The speed of vaccinations rose from May 2, when only 15,651 doses were administered, to May 10 with 61,200 doses.
The pace fell during the Hari Raya Aidilfitri holiday period but has since picked up again.
The current uptick in the country’s vaccination rate drew the attention from Matthew Tostevin, South-East Asia editor at international wire agency Reuters.
“Malaysia has picked up the pace of its Covid-19 vaccination campaign massively – an example for others in South-East Asia, ” he tweeted on Friday.
In all, a total of 2,236,695 people in Malaysia have received a vaccine dose, out of which 849,243 have received both doses and are therefore fully vaccinated.
The country’s vaccination programme started on Feb 24 with a target of covering at least 23.6 million people by February next year.
Malaysia has bought a total of 66.7 million doses of vaccine, enough to cover 109.65% of the country’s estimated 32.7 million population.
The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme is being carried out in three phases.
The first covered frontliners. The ongoing second phase that began on April 19 involves high-risk groups and those aged 60 and above.
The rest of the population aged 18 years and above will be vaccinated in the third phase, which is scheduled to start this month before ending in February next year.
The current pace of vaccinations could see a further ramp-up in the coming days and weeks based on several recent developments.
In addition to the country’s ongoing vaccination programme, a special second round of opt-ins for the AstraZeneca vaccine will open for registration at noon today.
The opt-in programme, with priority given to those aged 60 and above in the Klang Valley, Penang, Johor, Kuching and Miri, could further raise the daily vaccination rate.
There have been criticisms on the speed of vaccinations in Malaysia, especially when compared to several of its Asean neighbours.
According to Oxford University’s Our World in Data website, for example, the share of people who have received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine in Malaysia was 3.77% as at May 17.
In Singapore, the figure was 33.61% and 5.06% in Indonesia.
Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin has explained that the government’s ability to ramp up the vaccination rate has been constrained by the issue of vaccine supply.
“It is not a question of the government not wanting to administer jabs quickly. The issue here is with the supply. As soon as we get vaccines, we want to immediately jab it into people’s arms.
“The question of withholding vaccines does not arise, ” Khairy, who is the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme coordinating minister, said at his joint press conference with Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba on May 3.
Khairy also said the government is hoping to ramp up the utilisation rate of Covid-19 vaccines after the Hari Raya celebrations.