Khairy: Malaysia Has Fully Vaccinated 10% Of Its Population Against COVID-19
Khairy expects to achieve the target of fully vaccinating 30% to 40% of the population by the end of August
By Ahmad Hamizan @ Mike Miz — 10 Jul 2021, 07:20 PM
The milestone target of fully vaccinating 10% of the population has been achieved, after markedly increased vaccination rates
As of Friday, 9 July, a total of 3,314,871 people have completed both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, representing 10.2% of the national population.
This number is significant, as it marks the achievement of the first national indicators required to transition out of Phase One of the National Recovery Plan.
The other two thresholds are that number of daily COVID-19 cases drop below 4,000 and bed use at hospital ICUs are at a manageable level.
However, the other two key indicators seem to be moving in the opposite direction, with a new record high of 9,353 daily cases reported today, 10 July amidst overwhelmed hospitals.
In a statement, National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) Coordinating Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said that the milestone was achieved after increasing vaccination rates much higher than they were previously.
"Earlier this month we announced to administer 300,000 jabs on average in July, but over the last three days we did one million doses," he proclaimed during the "Vaccine Advocacy Forum" organised by the Malaysian Pharmacists Society, which had been streamed live online on yesterday.
The average previous vaccination rates in late June was around 200,000 shots administered daily.
Khairy now expects to achieve the target of fully vaccinating 30% to 40% of the population by the end of August
In the same forum, Khairy had also blamed the earlier slow vaccination rates on low vaccine supply in the country amidst global inequality in the distribution of vaccines.
He said that as of 4 July, Malaysia has received a total of 12.6 million doses of different vaccines from 67 million doses the country was able to procure.
"We are waiting for another 54 million vaccine doses, this is to indicate to the pharmacists society that this is a clear issue of supply, not capacity," he was quoted as saying by Malay Mail.
Khairy also promises that by the end of August the country will see marked decline in deaths and severe hospitalisations attributed to COVID-19.
He made this assertion by looking at the data from developed countries that have achieved this threshold, although he remarked that the number of cases might still be high due to the new Delta variant.
Khairy had received the first Sinovac vaccine administered in Malaysia, which he assures is just as effective as the others.
Image via Astro Awani