Malaysia hitting vax target

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia, along with more than 50 other countries, has reached the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) target of 70% of their population to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 by mid-2022.

According to Our World in Data (Owid), a total of 55 countries and territories, including Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam and Cambodia, have inoculated more than 70% of its population.

Another 33 countries, which includes Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines are on track to meet WHO’s goal.

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This means less than half or 43% of the 205 countries and territories tracked by Owid are on track to achieve the WHO target.

The remaining 117 countries and territories may not be able to hit the target, which includes all African countries, the United States and Turkey.

WHO, on Dec 23, 2021 had called for international commitment to ensure every country would have fully vaccinated at least 70% of its population by mid-2022.

“The rapid emergence of the Omicron variant is a stark reminder of the ongoing threat posed by the evolution of the Covid-19 virus and reinforces the critical need to achieve high levels of immunisation coverage in all countries, including in highly vulnerable populations, in a timely manner,” said the WHO on its website.

Owid had also revealed Malaysia as among the top 20 countries with the largest share of fully vaccinated population.

As at Feb 4, 78.8% of Malaysia’s population have been fully inoculated against Covid-19 with a total of 25.7mil doses administered.

On Feb 2, the Health Ministry said 517,107 children between the ages of five and 11 have registered for the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine, which will allow the country’s vaccination rate to reach more than 80% fully vaccinated population.

Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin in a statement yesterday, warned that Malaysia will see a spike in Covid-19 cases in the weeks to come as a result of the Omicron wave, similar to Singapore which has recorded over 13,000 Covid-19 cases in a single day on Feb 4.

“Our cases will also rise sharply in the next few weeks. This is the highly transmissible Omicron wave. So far, severity is far lower than Delta. Stay vigilant. Get boosted,”he said in a tweet.

Malaysia recorded 7,234 Covid-19 cases on Feb 4, but the Health Ministry said that most of those infected are asymptomatic or with mild symptoms.

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said on Friday that the high vaccination and booster rates in the country have resulted in fewer patients in Categories 3, 4 and 5.

“Today (Friday) of the 7,234 cases reported, only 73 patients (or 1%) are in Category 3, 4 and 5.

“More importantly 7,161 (99%) of the patients are in Category 1 and 2. It shows that vaccination works,” he said.