KUALA LUMPUR, June 29 — Selangor will be able to fully vaccinate 40 per cent of its total population by the end of July, as the state is expected to receive 4,008,710 Covid-19 vaccine doses next month from the federal government.
As of June 28, a total of 275,098 people, or 4.2 per cent of Selangor’s 6.5 million population, have been fully inoculated, while 880,954 people, or 13.5 per cent of the population have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine.
With 4,008,710 doses set to be delivered to the state in phases in July, Selangor can fully inoculate 2,582,381 people by the end of next month, comprising about 39.5 per cent of the state’s total 6.5 million population, or 53.3 per cent of the state’s 4.8 million adult population aged 18 and above.
If the central government opts to administer all 4,008,710 doses to an equal number of people with their first dose instead, it would mean that 4,889,664 people would have received at least one dose by end-July — about 75 per cent of Selangor’s total population, or more than 100 per cent of its adult population.
CodeBlue’s projections exclude vaccination data for today and tomorrow.
The federal government has yet to start vaccinating teenagers and children above 12. Local regulators on June 15 announced the approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech shot for use in children aged 12 years and older. Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin later said that Form Five students will be getting their Covid-19 vaccination in July.
With 54 per cent of Kuala Lumpur’s population already receiving at least one dose as of June 28, it means that the wider Klang Valley area can possibly look forward to reopening next month. Countries like the US have opened up with lower vaccination rates.
The US Centers For Disease and Control Prevention (CDC) on May 13 lifted mask mandates and social distancing rules, whether indoors or outdoors, for fully vaccinated people. At the time, about 58.7 per cent of the US adult population had received at least one dose, including 45.1 per cent of the adult population that were fully vaccinated.
However, reopening the Klang Valley, the heart of the country’s economy, depends on whether the projected high vaccination rates next month, which depend on how quickly vaccination centres can inoculate people, can rapidly cut infection and hospitalisation rates.
While Kuala Lumpur’s reported Covid-19 cases have been declining slowly over the past four weeks, the case trend in Selangor, which has been reporting the highest number of infections in Malaysia at more than 2,000 daily cases in 28 days from May 30 to June 6, has been inconsistent.
Today, Selangor reported 2,299 new Covid-19 infections while Kuala Lumpur recorded 1,361 cases, out of the total 6,437 cases reported nationwide.
The National Recovery Plan sets a daily average of below 4,000 Covid-19 cases, complete vaccination of 10 per cent of the total population, and moderate intensive care unit (ICU) bed usage for the entire nation to move to Phase Two of movement restrictions.
Targets for Phase Three comprise recording below 2,000 daily Covid-19 cases nationwide and fully vaccinating 40 per cent of the total population.
Under Phase Three, all economic sectors, except high-risk ones, are permitted to operate at 80 per cent capacity, while the social sector can gradually reopen.
A table from the Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF) uploaded by Selangor public health executive councillor Dr Siti Mariah Mahmud on Twitter today showed that a total 14,191,380 doses of Covid-19 vaccines will be distributed to states in July.
Of the total doses to be delivered, Selangor will receive the highest quantity at 4,008,710 doses, followed by Sarawak (2,389,582 doses), Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya (1,614,421 doses), Johor (950,618 doses) and Negeri Sembilan (743,054 doses). The lowest is Perlis with 100,254 doses.
By doses to be delivered per population size, however, Labuan leads with 153.99 doses per 100 people, followed by Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya (85.7 doses per 100 people), Sarawak (84.84 doses per 100 people), Negeri Sembilan (65.83 doses per 100 people), and Selangor (61.31 doses per 100 people). The lowest is Sabah with 17.27 doses per 100 people.
Dr Siti Mariah, in her tweet today, said she was “grateful” to the federal government for the supply of vaccine doses that will be delivered to Selangor next month.
This came following a tussle over Covid-19 vaccines between the federal and Selangor state governments over the past couple of days, with Selangor insisting that it received fewer doses than claimed by the federal administration.
The state was reacting to Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin’s earlier statement, where he claimed that Selangor had the lowest Covid-19 vaccine utilisation rate in the country at 76 per cent.
Correction note: CodeBlue made an error in the graphic on the number of Covid-19 vaccine deliveries and doses per 100 people for Kelantan. The error has been corrected.
