KUALA LUMPUR, March 21 – A total of 409,423 health care personnel under the Ministry of Health (MOH) have received a Covid-19 vaccine booster dose, as of February 15.
Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin told Beaufort MP Azizah Mohd Dun in a written parliamentary reply on March 17 that the figure accounted for 81.4 per cent of 502,688 fully vaccinated MOH staff.
According to official ministry data, Sarawak has the highest percentage of government health workers who have taken a booster jab at 94.6 per cent (27,848 workers) of 29,424 fully vaccinated MOH staff in the state.
This is followed by Labuan at 93.1 per cent (843 workers) of 905 fully vaccinated MOH health workers in the federal territory, and Melaka at 90.9 per cent (16,294 workers) of 17,919 fully vaccinated MOH staff in the state.
Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Putrajaya, Perak, Pahang, and Johor all have a booster percentage of over 80 per cent of their respective total of fully vaccinated health workers.
Kelantan has the lowest booster percentage at 69.4 per cent (18,724 workers) out of 26,981 fully vaccinated MOH workers in the east coast state.
Unlike the primary Covid-19 vaccine series that the government made mandatory for civil servants, which later appeared to have been retracted, Khairy made it clear that Covid-19 booster shots were not mandatory but “highly recommended”.
When asked about how frequent medical workers had to test for Covid-19, Khairy said only health workers with symptoms who had been identified as a high-risk close contact will be screened using an RTK antigen kit for the coronavirus.
