Doing her part: An elderly recipient waitng to get a vaccine shot at Klinik Metro Bandar Sri Permaisuri in Kuala Lumpur. — SAMUEL ONG/The Star
PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia’s Covid-19 immunisation drive is going full steam ahead towards achieving its aim of vaccinating 10% of the population this month.
The coordinating minister of the national immunisation programme Khairy Jamaluddin said as at June 29, a total of 7,824,912 vaccine shots have been administered in the country.
“We are confident that the figures will reach eight million by the end of the day, meeting the target that we have put for the month of June,” said Khairy at the weekly Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF) press conference yesterday.
As part of the National Recovery Plan, the government has set a target of ensuring that by mid-July, at least 10% of the population are fully vaccinated.
This translates to 3.2 million people in the country.
At present, the country has managed to fully vaccinate 2.2 million people.
Khairy said Malaysia’s vaccination rate is consistently increasing, with the average number of injections given up by 19% last week compared to the previous week.
“On June 24, we reached a new record of 268,604 vaccine shots in a day.
“Our vaccination rates are consistently increasing as the immunisation programme continues to be intensified.
“As more supplies of vaccines arrive, we can set higher targets and benchmarks so we can achieve broader vaccination coverage as soon as possible,” he added.
Khairy said the third phase of the vaccination programme, which involves the general public aged between 18 and 59, has begun in Melaka, Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, Labuan, Penang, Selangor and Sarawak.
He added that 2.1 million senior citizens have received at least one vaccine dose.
Meanwhile, Khairy said the RM400mil allocation for the vaccination drive which was announced by Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin under the Pemulih aid package is a welcome boost.
“An allocation of RM200mil will also see the setting up of new vaccination centres (PPV), and this includes drive-through PPV, mobile PPV and home-to-home outreach programmes.
“Volunteers under the vaccination programme will also see their incentives increased to RM100 a day starting this month.
“With these initiatives, we are confident this will boost the vaccination programme for the weeks and months to come,” said Khairy.
He added that the mega PPV at KL Convention Centre and the Setia City Convention Centre have begun operating with a higher capacity of 8,000 and 6,000 respectively.
On vaccine supplies, Malaysia will receive two million vaccine doses from Japan and the United States in the form of donations.
This is on top of the national vaccines supply that Malaysia is scheduled to receive.
“We are thankful for the donations from Japan and the United States. This symbolises their belief and trust in Malaysia’s capability in combating the global Covid-19 pandemic,” said Khairy.
To date, over 9.3 million vaccine doses have been distributed in the country.
This includes 4.5 million Pfizer vaccine, four million from Sinovac and 825,700 from AstraZeneca.
