KUALA LUMPUR, June 9 — Covid-19 vaccine registrations in Malaysia have begun levelling off, reaching just over half of the adult population as of June 7 after some three months since registrations opened.
From February 23 to June 7 this year, Malaysia recorded a total of 12,743,918 registrations for inoculation under the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK), comprising 52.5 per cent of the country’s 24.3 million population aged 18 years and above.
Over the past three months from March 12 to June 7, all states and federal territories showed a plateau of registrations for coronavirus vaccination, based on data from the Special Committee on Ensuring Access to Covid-19 Vaccine Supply (JKJAV).
Kuala Lumpur had the country’s second highest Covid-19 vaccine registration rate at 70.9 per cent of its adult population as of June 7, behind Putrajaya, while less than half of the eligible populations in Perlis, Perak, Kedah, Pahang, Terengganu, Kelantan, and Sabah have registered for shots.
It was not until the last week of May, when the Covid-19 epidemic in Malaysia worsened significantly — recording between 6,509 and 9,020 daily Covid-19 cases — that Covid-19 vaccine registration numbers in a few states started to pick up marginally.
The increase in Covid-19 vaccine registration rates at the end of May was highest by absolute count in Selangor, rising by 519,394 registrations from 2,843,697 registrations as of May 24 to 3,363,091 registrations as of June 7 — an 18.3 per cent rise.
Pahang registered the biggest percentage increase of vaccine registrations at 26.3 per cent, from 426,578 registrations as of May 24 to 538,874 registrations as of June 7.
In Labuan, registrations for Covid-19 jabs increased marginally by 2,906 registrations from 39,070 as of May 24 to 41,976 as of June 7, marking just a 7.4 per cent increase.
Sarawak recorded the lowest percentage increase of vaccine registrations at 7 per cent, from 1,172,042 registrations as of May 24 to 1,254,262 registrations as of June 7.
Out of all the states and federal territories in Malaysia, Putrajaya has achieved 120.9 per cent vaccine registrations among its adult population, the highest coverage in the country.
It is unclear why Covid-19 vaccine registration in Putrajaya exceeded its adult population as the administrative centre only has about 56,900 adult residents, whereas total vaccine registrations reached 68,774 as of June 7.
Sabah, on the other hand, being the state with the second largest adult population of about 2.9 million people, had the lowest coronavirus vaccine registration rate (19.9 per cent) nationwide as of June 7.
