KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 14 — AstraZeneca today sent a shipment of 555,100 doses of its Covid-19 vaccine to Malaysia, leading to a total of 3.9 million doses delivered to date.
The 3,942,000 AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine doses comprise 1,413,000 doses donated by Japan and the United Kingdom, 828,000 doses from the global COVAX facility backed by the United Nations, and 1,701,000 doses from Malaysia’s direct procurement order.
This means Malaysia has only received about 27 per cent of the 6.4 million doses directly ordered from AstraZeneca. Malaysia has not yet received delivery of the one million AstraZeneca doses that the Saudi Arabia government promised to contribute.
“As Malaysia continues to steadily increase its vaccination rate, we remain committed to supporting every Malaysian being vaccinated as quickly as possible.
“We look forward to continued cooperation with the government in supporting Malaysia’s transition to an endemic stage and the reopening of the economy,” AstraZeneca Malaysia country president Dr Sanjeev Panchal said in a statement.
Malaysia’s daily Covid-19 vaccination rate dropped 57.8 per cent from a peak of 538,148 doses administered on July 31 to just 227,147 jabs given yesterday.
Slightly more than half, or 53.5 per cent, of Malaysia’s total population has been fully vaccinated. Terengganu (45.1 per cent), Johor (44.9 per cent), Perak (41.3 per cent), Pahang (40.9 per cent), Kedah (38.9 per cent), Sabah (36.1 per cent), and Kelantan (34.5 per cent) have yet to exceed 50 per cent coverage of their total populations.
Correction: This article was updated to clarify that Malaysia only received about 27% of the 6.4 million direct order from AstraZeneca, not 61% as previously stated.
