KUALA LUMPUR, July 16 — Vaccine Minister Khairy Jamaluddin today maintained his projection to fully inoculate 80 per cent of adults in the country with Covid-19 vaccines by the end of 2021.
The government has been accelerating its Covid-19 vaccine rollout, hitting more than 400,000 daily shots to the arm in the past four consecutive days.
“On the projection, for 80 per cent, I am still maintaining my December projection. Things are looking good. With the rate of vaccinations that we are doing currently, I do believe that we can shorten the timeline, however, it is going to depend on vaccine supplies,” Khairy said today in a virtual press conference.
“So for that reason, I want to be more cautious and conservative in my projection and I still maintain my December projection for 80 per cent.”
Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah yesterday projected a continued rise in daily Covid-19 cases, hitting a peak of 17,000 a day in just one month by mid-August before declining to fewer than 1,000 cases daily by October, if 80 per cent of the population is fully vaccinated by October 31.
His forecast was more grim, assuming that 80 per cent of the population is fully inoculated by December 31, predicting a rise in Covid-19 infections up to a peak of about 23,000 cases a day by mid-September.
Khairy said today that Malaysia has received 19,763,970 Covid-19 vaccine doses as of July 15, comprising 7,145,190 Pfizer-BioNTech doses, 11,140,480 Sinovac doses, and 1,478,300 AstraZeneca doses.
A total of 16,438,189 vaccine doses have been distributed to facilities nationwide, which leaves some 3.3 million doses, or 16.8 per cent of supply, still in stock.
Malaysia is expected to receive delivery of 1,742,130 Pfizer doses next week until July 25, plus an additional 2,420,730 doses by end July.
Pharmaniaga is expected to complete delivery of the federal government’s 12 million Sinovac order by month’s end, after delivering 11,140,480 doses as of yesterday.
