Khairy Projects 10% Population Fully Vaccinated By Mid-July

The government plans to ramp up the pace of Covid-19 vaccination to eight million doses in June, before hitting 10.7 million doses by mid-July.

KUALA LUMPUR, June 21 — The central government said today it expects to fully vaccinate 10 per cent of Malaysia’s total population by the middle of next month to start the next phase of movement restrictions.

Vaccine Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said in his weekly joint media briefing with Health Minister Dr Adham Baba that the government plans to ramp up the pace of vaccination to eight million doses in June, before hitting 10.7 million doses by the middle of next month.

“Based on our projection — taking into consideration vaccine supply and the PPV capacity — we project that we can reach 10 per cent full coverage, which is two doses, by mid-July. 

“Currently, for every 100 doses that we administer, 30 doses are the second dose. So, in order to fully immunise 10 per cent of the population or 3.2 million people, we need to administer roughly 10.7 million doses, taking into consideration the ratio that I mentioned just now.

“We are aiming to administer eight million doses in June and hopefully, we will reach 10.7 million in mid-July so this will involve ramping up our daily capacity. But we feel we can get to about 10.7 million doses in mid-July and therefore, 10 per cent full coverage by mid-July.” Khairy said.

As of June 20, a total of 1,612,974 adults, or 4.9 per cent of the nation’s total 32.7 million population, have been fully vaccinated. This means about 1.6 million more people must complete two vaccine doses within the next three weeks to reach Khairy’s target of 10 per cent population coverage by mid-July.

Putrajaya registered the highest percentage per population of fully vaccinated adults at 20,073 individuals, or 18.2 per cent of its 108,900 population. 

The small island of Labuan has the second highest fully vaccinated rate, with 13.5 per cent of its 99,600 population, or 13,430 adults, having completed a two-dose Covid-19 vaccine regime. Labuan is projected to be the first territory in Malaysia to reach the 80 per cent goal of full Covid-19 vaccination of the total population.

According to Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin on June 15, transitioning to Phase Two of the National Recovery Plan — which would see economic sectors permitted to operate at 80 per cent capacity — requires 10 per cent of Malaysia’s population to be fully vaccinated.

The other two indicators for Phase Two are a maximum daily average of below 4,000 Covid-19 cases and intensive care unit (ICU) bed occupancy rate of maximum 70 per cent.

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