KUALA LUMPUR, March 3 — About 10.7 per cent of 500,000 frontline workers, or 53,287 people, have received their first dose of Covid-19 vaccines as of yesterday.
Vaccine Minister Khairy Jamaluddin released earlier today the number of people vaccinated with their first dose according to states.
Labuan, with a population of 99,600 individuals, has the highest number of people vaccinated with their first dose in Malaysia at about 1,290 people per 100,000 population, according to CodeBlue’s calculations that referred to population information from the Department of Statistics Malaysia.
This was followed by Putrajaya with 935 people vaccinated per 100,000 population with their first dose. Labuan started their vaccination programme on February 27, while Putrajaya started theirs on March 1.
Labuan has an incidence rate of 2,262 Covid-19 cases per 100,000 population, the highest compared to all states and federal territories in Malaysia.
The top five states with the highest number of people vaccinated per 100,000 residents with their first dose were Labuan (1,290), Putrajaya (935), Perlis (415), Sarawak (346), and Pahang (339).
Meanwhile, although Selangor was the first state to start its Covid-19 vaccination programme on February 25, it only managed to inoculate 31 people per 100,000 population with their first dose, the lowest rate in the country. In terms of the absolute number of individuals vaccinated, Selangor has only vaccinated 2,047 people among its 6.5 million population as of March 2.
It is unknown why Selangor’s absolute number of vaccinated individuals, as well as the number of people vaccinated per 100,000 population, is much lower than other states, despite being the earliest to start the vaccination programme.
On February 24, Malaysia began its National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme after the arrival of over 300,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
Phase One of the vaccination programme is aimed at 500,000 frontliners, comprising both health care and non-health care workers, including security and defence personnel. The Pfizer vaccine, which has been procured for 50 per cent of the population, has been distributed to all states that individually started their vaccination drive on different dates.
In terms of the absolute number of people who received their first dose, Sarawak has managed to vaccinate 9,737 individuals, the highest compared to all other states and federal territories. This was followed by Perak (5,714), Pahang (5,696), Kuala Lumpur (5,601), and Kelantan (4,593).
The government has set a target of vaccinating 26 million people, or 80 per cent of the population, by the end of this year. Authorities aim to inoculate 75,000 people a day during Phase Two.
Besides the Pfizer vaccine, the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA) has now given conditional registration approval for the AstraZeneca and Sinovac vaccines. Although the wholesale form of 300,000 doses of Sinovac vaccine has arrived in Malaysia, it is yet to undergo the final stage of fill-and-finish.
NPRA has yet to give approval to Pharmaniaga Bhd for its fill-and-finish process, the final critical stage of manufacturing, for the Sinovac vaccine.
