PETALING JAYA: The government has ordered more than 76.1 million doses of vaccines as vaccination is the only key to fighting the Covid-19 pandemic, says Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
The Prime Minister said that the government is now aiming for 500,000 daily vaccinations to ensure that 100% of all adults in Malaysia would have received two doses by October of this year.
“Vaccination is our main key to success in fighting the Covid-19 pandemic. So, what does the government do?
“It orders more than 76.1 million doses of vaccines – 70% Pfizer, 23.4% Sinovac, 10% AstraZeneca, 10.9% CanSino and 10% more through the Covax initiative,” he said in a statement on his Facebook on Sunday (July 18).
Covax is a global vaccine procurement initiative intended to secure inoculations for low- and middle-income nations.
Muhyiddin further said that to date, Malaysia has received 20 million of the doses it had ordered.
“We expect to receive 30 million doses by the end of this month, 40 million doses by August, 53 million doses by September and 58 million doses by this October.
“Initially, 80% of the Malaysian population was supposed to receive complete doses by the first quarter of 2022. This was then expedited to December 2021.
“Now, with more new Covid-19 variants which are more ferocious and a sudden surge in positive cases, the target of the vaccination programme has been expedited further,” said Muhyiddin.
He added that the entire adult population of Selangor and Kuala Lumpur would have received at least one dose by Aug 1 under Operasi Lonjakan Kapasiti (Operation Surge Capacity).
“The whole adult population of Sarawak would have received at least one dose by the end of August. Most of the states would record a 50% vaccination rate by the end of August,” said Muhyiddin.
He also said that all states would have a more than 70% vaccination rate by September.
“The whole adult population of Malaysia would have received their complete vaccination doses by October. The capacity of the rate of vaccination will now be increased to 500,000 doses daily,” he added.
