KUALA LUMPUR, March 17 — Labuan, having the second smallest population in Malaysia, is the first territory to vaccinate all its frontline workers with at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.
CodeBlue noted that the cumulative number of doses (first dose) administered in the island neighbouring Sabah stayed at 2,342 doses since March 12, based on official statistics, with no increases in the past four days.
Upon contacting Health Minister Dr Adham, he shared a message to CodeBlue from Labuan health director Dr Ismuni Bohari, who said that Labuan has vaccinated all their frontliners with the first dose.
“Dear Datuk Sri. We have completed the first dose of Covid-19 to all our registered frontliners on the 12th of March ahead of our planned schedule,” Dr Adham shared with CodeBlue.
“Our second dose will be started this coming Saturday (20 March 2021).”
Labuan started their Covid-19 vaccination programme on February 27 and has managed to vaccinate all their frontliners within two weeks.
If the same timeline is maintained, Labuan will be able to vaccinate all their 2,342 frontliners with the second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine by April 3.
Labuan is also the top three in vaccinating the highest number of individuals per 100 population as of March 16. After Putrajaya and Perlis, which have vaccinated four people and three people per 100 population respectively, Labuan falls in third position for vaccinating two individuals per 100 population.
Meanwhile, Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim, in a press conference yesterday, suggested to the government to vaccinate more individuals with one dose of the vaccine, rather than reserving the second dose.
“Now we have the Pfizer vaccine, dose one and two. Finish the rakyat. The second dose can wait and give to the rakyat (first),” Anwar said.
“We continue the first dose for all the public and then the second dose.”
This strategy has been adopted by the United Kingdom, in which individuals only get their second dose of the coronavirus vaccine 12 weeks after their first dose to ensure that more people can get at least the first dose rather than a smaller number of people getting both doses.
Data from England found that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was 70 per cent effective in reducing the risk of infection from Covid-19 after the first dose alone.
