KUALA LUMPUR, July 26 — The government projects to completely inoculate all adults in Malaysia under the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) by October, Muhyiddin Yassin announced today.
This means fully vaccinating 76.4 per cent of the 23.4 million-adult population, or 17.9 million people, in the next three months, as only 23.6 per cent of the population have been fully inoculated as of yesterday, or 5.5 million people. About 11.8 million people have received at least one dose.
The prime minister did not specify figures on vaccine-hesitant people or those who are unable to take the Covid-19 vaccine for medical reasons.
As of yesterday, 79.8 per cent of the adult population aged 18 and above have registered for vaccination, or 19,919,192 people.
“According to the original plan, it is expected that 80 per cent of the adult population in Malaysia will receive complete doses of vaccine by the first quarter of 2022,” Muhyiddin told a special Dewan Rakyat meeting today.
“However, the PICK programme will be further intensified so that the target of completely inoculating 100 per cent of the adult population can be achieved earlier by October this year.
“The fact is, the only most effective way for the country to get out of this crisis immediately is by increasing vaccination capacity.”
According to Muhyiddin, the federal government has ordered 79.9 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine. Of that amount, a total of 25.2 doses of vaccine have been received.
The remaining 37.3 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine is expected to be received by August and another 21.9 million doses in the final quarter of this year. The balance doses will be received in the first quarter of 2022.
The breakdown of the Covid-19 vaccine delivery as mentioned by the Prime Minister amounts to 84.4 million doses, showing an excess of 4.5 million doses from the total order of 79.9 million doses of vaccine.
Muhyiddin, who acknowledged the rapid surge of Covid-19 infections in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur, also highlighted the Ministry of Health’s Greater Klang Valley Special Task Force, where the federal government will work together with the Selangor state government, mainly to ensure the hospitals run on optimum capacity and to control the spread of the coronavirus.
“Referring to global data, the average death rate due to Covid-19 infection is 2.2 percent of the total cases globally, while the mortality rate for Malaysia is 0.7 percent,” said Muhyiddin, referring to the cumulative case fatality rate.
However, when broken down into specific time periods, Malaysia’s Covid-19 mortality rate was above one per cent in June (1.32 per cent) and July (1.08 per cent as of July 25).
Muhyiddin also said that all the efforts to combat Covid-19 epidemic in the country should be based on three main pillars as below:
Pillar One: Break the chain of epidemic transmission through enhancement of Covid-19 screening, close contact detection and isolation measures.
Pillar Two: Reduce morbidity and mortality rates through capacity building of the health care system, including optimising the capacity of university teaching hospitals, capacity under the Ministry of Defence, and also through outsourcing to private hospitals.
Pillar Three: Protect the health of the people as a whole by providing adequate support for needs other than Covid-19.
