More vaccines coming in to shore up national supply

PETALING JAYA: With the arrival of more vaccine supplies, health experts believe this will ramp up the nation’s efforts of having at least 10% of the population fully immunised by mid-July.

Malaysia will receive one million AstraZeneca vaccine doses from Japan today while another one million Pfizer doses donated by the United States will arrive tomorrow.

Universiti Putra Malaysia medical epidemiologist Assoc Prof Dr Malina Osman said based on the current vaccination rate per day, the country can achieve an immunisation of 10% of the population by mid-July.

However, Dr Malina pointed out that Covid-19 cases are still quite high in the nation with consistently high cases detected in Selangor.

“Yesterday, Selangor recorded almost 3,000 cases, and I think more aggressive steps should be imposed to avoid further increase of new cases.

“We have to be cautious with the presence of the new Delta strain,” Prof Malina said, adding that the number of deaths recorded in Selangor is still too high.

Malaysian Public Health Physicians Association president Datuk Dr Zainal Ariffin Omar said the donations of vaccines from Japan and the United States were welcomed as it would help facilitate more inoculations in the country.

“If we are receiving more vaccines then that is good as we will have extra.

“But the vaccines should be given out as fast as possible to the people as there are many who are waiting to be vaccinated,” he said when contacted yesterday.

Dr Zainal also hopes the government would ensure the timely supply of vaccines to each state.