Not long to go to hit vaccination target

Lending a hand: Dr Adham vaccinating Mohd Shaharrudin Ab Halim, 45, while being observed by the president of Persatuan OKU Sentral, Senator Datuk Ras Adiba Radzi, at the OKU Sentral drive-through PPV in Johor Baru. — Bernama

JOHOR BARU: Only 1.8% of the adult population in Malaysia remains to be fully vaccinated before the country achieves its target of 80% adult population vaccinated under the national immunisation programme, says Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba.

He added as of Saturday, 78.2% of the adult population in Malaysia were fully vaccinated.

“This means that just 1.8% of the adult population have not been completely vaccinated before we achieve our objective.

“We expect to achieve our target within the next two days, depending on the performance of our Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF),” he said here during a visit to OKU Sentral drive-through vaccination centre (PPV) at the Johor Baru City Council Aquatic Centre in Larkin yesterday.

He added 93.1% of the adult population have got at least one dose of the vaccine.

Dr Adham said starting September, the vaccination rate was much higher in certain states, namely Kelantan, Pahang, Kedah, Perak and Sabah, as efforts were focused on boosting their low vaccination rates.

“Our focus now is for the states to reach at least 60% of their adult population to be fully vaccinated by the end of this month,” he added.

Dr Adham said vaccination coverage in most states was on track, especially in Sarawak, Labuan and in the Klang Valley covering Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya.

However, he said that it did not mean that vaccination efforts were being slowed down, adding that instead, it was merely focused on certain states and areas, including groups inadvertently left out.

The daily vaccination rate recorded on Saturday was 232,559 doses, with the highest number of doses administered in Sabah, Johor and the Klang Valley, he added.

On vaccinations for person-with-disabilities (OKU), Dr Adham said according to CITF data, 517,447 people or 89.9% out of 575,564 of those who have registered had received at least one dose.

“A total of 401,425 people have received full vaccinations covering 69.7% of the total number of disabled people who registered for vaccination,” he said.

On the OKU Sentral drive-through PPV at the Aquatic Centre, he said it would be open to the public on a walk-in basis from today until Sept 30.