The Malaysian Insight

THE target to fully vaccinate half of the country’s adult population by this month is on schedule, Khairy Jamaluddin said. 

The coordinating minister for the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme said via a video feed today that 12 million vaccine doses have been administered under the programme last month alone.  

This figure is far higher than the eight million cumulative doses administered since the rollout of the programme in February to June.

The notable achievement was made possible due to the high average daily vaccination rate of almost 400,000 last month, surpassing its initial target of 300,000 doses per day.

“We started the month (of July) behind advanced countries such as Australia, Japan and South Korea, but finished the month considerably ahead.

“Our ramp-up has been internationally recognised and we have been recording daily vaccinations in excess of half a million doses.

“This shows us what we have always known: what was holding us back was not the lack of capacity, resources or competency, but rather, not having a consistent supply of vaccines due to global vaccine inequity and the hoarding of vaccines by certain countries, which has been condemned by the World Health Organization,” he said in what was his final address as a minister. 

Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin is expected to tender his resignation to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong tomorrow and with it, the ministers will also lose their positions.

The Covid-19 immunisation programme has also achieved its target of ensuring that every adult in the Klang Valley has received at least one dose of vaccine through the recently launched Operations Surge Capacity. 

This operation saw an average of 235,000 doses administered per day.

“Thank you to all involved, and we hope to see the inflection point for hospitalisation and deaths in the Klang Valley in the next few weeks, as people get their second doses,” Khairy said.

The proportion of the adult population in Malaysia that has received two doses has surpassed 40% as of August 14, and the number fo people who have received one dose has exceeded 50%.

In total, 81% of all registered adults have received at least one dose of vaccine.

Khairy cited the exemplary recovery in Labuan and Sarawak, where 60% and 56% of their residents respectively have been inoculated.

This has led to a drop in the number of Covid-19 patients in intensive care units by 60% in Sarawak and almost 100% in Labuan. Furthermore, key indicators such as the number of mortality and severe cases are also declining.

“We know that the Delta variant is prevalent in both Sarawak and Labuan, yet, Alhamdulillah, the vaccines are having their intended effect of reducing the severity of Covid-19,” said Khairy.

“So, in terms of speed and effectiveness, our immunisation programme has started to deliver some early positive results. But we must continuously strive to do better and we will.

“We had a very good July, and we are on track for our August target.

“We need to work hard to get as many people vaccinated as quickly as possible so our economy can open, our people can recover and our nation can heal.” – August 15, 2021.