Khairy: Malaysia to receive 12 million Covid-19 vaccine doses in July

PETALING JAYA: In July, Malaysia will be receiving 12 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines, says Khairy Jamaluddin.

The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme coordinating minister said that this is when a large part of the country's vaccine supply would arrive.

"To put it into context, to date, we have cumulatively administered around eight million doses since February.

"So this is going to be an extremely busy month for us as we ramp up capacity across the country," he said in his updates in a pre-recorded video released Saturday (July 3).

Since his last update last month, Khairy said that the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme had made significant progress.

"Our average daily vaccination rate for June was almost 170,000, surpassing our target of 150,000.

"We are vaccinating people at a higher rate daily per capita than the world average.

"We are now consistently vaccinating 250,000 a day and will target monthly averages of 300,000 a day in July.

"At the end of May, only 5.9% of our population had received at least one dose

"That number is now 18%. That is a 200% increase in June alone," said Khairy.

He said that he had also previously voiced out regarding the vaccine supply inequity globally.

"This is a view shared by many developing nations and the World Health Organisation (WHO). We are thankful that some countries have started to address this injustice by kindly offering contributions.

"We have received one million doses of AstraZeneca from Japan and will soon be receiving contributions from the United States and China.

"On behalf of the Malaysian people, terima kasih (thank you)," he said.

He said the government was also working hard to secure the delivery of the CanSino vaccine in July.

"Not only is this vaccine safe and effective, it is a single-dose vaccine.

"The CanSino vaccine will be invaluable in states with communities living in the interior and hard to access areas.

It will also be convenient to administer to the refugee community, who will also be vaccinated under our national programme," he assured.