KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is on track to achieve the target of getting 50% of its adult population fully vaccinated this month, says the coordinating minister for the immunisation programme, Khairy Jamaluddin.
“Our average daily vaccination rate for July was almost 400,000, surpassing our target of 300,000. We started the month behind advanced countries like Australia, Japan and South Korea, but finished considerably ahead.
“Our ramp-up has been internationally recognised and we have been recording daily vaccinations in excess of half a million doses,” he said.
“This shows 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 the global vaccine inequity and the hoarding of vaccines by certain countries which has been condemned by the World Health Organization,” he said in a video posted on his Twitter account today.
Khairy said 100% of adults in the Klang Valley had received at least one dose of the vaccine.
More than 40% of Malaysia’s adult population had received two doses of vaccine and more than 50% of the total population had received at least a single dose.
Khairy said 60% of Labuan’s population had been fully vaccinated and 56% in Sarawak. The number of Covid-19 patients in ICU had dropped by 60% in Sarawak and close to 100% in Labuan.
“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,” he said.
“I will not stop until every adult is fully vaccinated by the end of October. That has been my promise to you. I hope I can see this through,” he said.-BERNAMA