KUALA LUMPUR, July 16 — Malaysia has surpassed South Korea and Australia on per capita complete Covid-19 vaccination, according to the Our World on Data tracker.
Malaysia’s accelerated vaccine rollout saw its share of population fully vaccinated hitting 12.37 per cent as of July 14, compared to South Korea’s 12.06 per cent and Australia’s 9.75 per cent.
South Korea and Australia have a tiny edge over Malaysia on their share of population who have received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine, at 30.89 per cent and 27.38 per cent respectively, versus Malaysia’s 26.71 per cent as of July 14.
However, Malaysia will likely overtake South Korea and Australia in the next few days since Malaysia’s Covid-19 vaccination rate rose rapidly in recent weeks, overtaking Australia since June 14 and South Korea since June 23.
On July 14, based on a rolling seven-day average, Malaysia administered 1.15 doses per 100 people, more than double Australia’s 0.51 and quadruple South Korea’s 0.27 rate.
Malaysia administered over 460,000 shots yesterday, after dispensing more than 420,000 daily shots on average three days prior. Of the 460,158 doses administered yesterday, 155,351 shots were second doses.
Malaysia, South Korea, and Australia kicked off their coronavirus vaccination programmes in February.
The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) in Malaysia started on February 24, with Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin becoming the first person in the country to receive the Covid-19 vaccine shot.
South Korea’s vaccination campaign officially began on February 26 with the vaccination of a children’s hospital doctor. World War II survivor Jane Malysiak became the first person to be vaccinated in Australia on February 21.
The record rollout rate has made Malaysia among the top countries in the world with the highest vaccination rate in the past week.
At the state level, Negeri Sembilan, Selangor, Perak, Putrajaya, Terengganu, and Pahang more than doubled their Covid-19 vaccination rates in the past month, while Negeri Sembilan nearly quadrupling its rate from the week of June 16-22 to the week of July 7-13.
Vaccine Minister Khairy Jamaluddin previously projected 40 per cent of Malaysia’s total population will be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 by the end of August, in line with the National Recovery Plan.
He estimated complete vaccination coverage of 60 per cent of the population by the end of September and 80 per cent by December.
Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah forecasts daily Covid-19 cases to dip to under 1,000 by October if Malaysia can ramp up second-dose inoculation to 150,000 per day.
The Ministry of Health (MOH) projects new Covid-19 infections to rise by up to a peak of 17,000 a day by mid-August before subsequently declining, assuming that 80 per cent of the population is fully vaccinated by October 31. Malaysia reported a record 13,215 new infections yesterday.
