KUALA LUMPUR, July 15 — Negeri Sembilan, Selangor, Perak, Putrajaya, Terengganu, and Pahang more than doubled their Covid-19 vaccination rates in the past month, with Negeri Sembilan nearly quadrupling its rate.
The seven-day average of daily vaccine doses administered from the week of June 16-22 to the past week of July 7-13 rose the highest in Negeri Sembilan at 292.4 per cent, followed by Selangor (167.1 per cent), Perak (134.4 per cent), Putrajaya (133.3 per cent), Terengganu (131.3 per cent), and Pahang (108.2 per cent).
States with below 50 per cent percentage of increase in that period were Sabah (12.2 per cent), Perlis (13.5 per cent), Johor (34.4 per cent), Kelantan (36.9 per cent), and Sarawak (38.5 per cent).
Nationwide, daily shots-to-the-arm rose 82.6 per cent in the past month from an average of 199,660 jabs a day in the week of June 16-22 to 364,602 doses administered daily in the week of July 77-13.
Perlis and Sabah recorded declines in daily jabs two consecutive weeks in the week of June 23-29 and June 30-July 6, before reporting increases the following week of July 7-13 at 78.6 per cent and 36.6 per cent respectively.
Covid-19 vaccination rates depend on both supply and efficiency in using up the supply.
A state with high vaccination rates may not necessarily be more efficient than another with lower rates, as the latter could be constrained by poor supply.
Utilisation rates can only be calculated from vaccine deliveries and doses administered. Although the Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF) publishes daily jabs in each state, it has not published vaccine deliveries by state.
While Selangor public health executive councillor Dr Siti Mariah Mahmud posted last June 29 the federal government’s scheduled Covid-19 vaccine deliveries to states for this month, the deliveries are subject to change. Based on the schedule she posted, Labuan is expected to receive the biggest vaccine delivery per capita, followed by Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya; Sarawak; Negeri Sembilan; and Selangor, the country’s most populous state with 6.5 million residents.
As of July 13, Labuan had the highest vaccination coverage at 48.7 per cent of adults fully inoculated, followed by Sarawak (32.4 per cent) and Perlis (32.3 per cent).
The Klang Valley, which is the current epicentre with surging Covid-19 infections overwhelming its health care system, only has 16 per cent of adults fully vaccinated.
In the past two days alone, the country’s most developed region reported 13,701 new Covid-19 cases and 141 fatalities. Selangor comprised about 75 per cent of coronavirus cases and 73 per cent of deaths in the Klang Valley from July 13 to 14.
