KUALA LUMPUR: The government is speeding up the vaccination rate as up to now, 44.1% of the adult population in the country have been fully vaccinated while 72.1% have received their first dose.

       Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin said: “The government is focused on speeding up vaccination in all states.

       “Johor recently received two million vaccine doses and the government will supply 1.5 million doses to Sabah this month.”

       In the Klang Valley, Muhyiddin said 64.7% of individuals were vaccinated after Operation Surge Capacity, which began on July 26, managed to step up the vaccination process among Kuala Lumpur and Selangor populations.

       Following this, the Health Ministry is now seeing a drop in hospital admission by Covid-19 patients in all age groups.

       “We see early positive developments from the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) across states and places like Labuan, Sarawak, Negri Sembilan, Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and within the Klang Valley.

       “According to Health Ministry data, all the states mentioned began showing a drop in Covid-19 cases for categories 3, 4 and 5 once the percentage of adult population vaccinated reached 40%.

       “On Saturday, Labuan reported no new Covid-19 cases for the first time and to date, they have vaccinated 88.1% of its population,” he said in a statement via social media yesterday.

       He said data from the Crisis Preparedness Response Centre (CPRC) for hospitals showed the situation at emergency departments within the Klang Valley has also improved.

       “On July 31, the average number of patients waiting at the emergency department was 909, but on Aug 13, the average reduced to 239 patients a day,” he said.

       “I hope this trend would continue and help reduce the burden of serious Covid-19 cases as well as patient admission into ICU.”

       However, he said ICU capacity was still full as treatment for serious cases required a longer period than regular wards.

       Meanwhile, Bernama reported Federal Territories Minister Tan Sri Annuar Musa as saying that Kuala Lumpur achieved herd immunity yesterday when the vaccination of its adult population reached 85%.

       “Alhamdulillah, Kuala Lumpur managed to achieve 85% vaccination of its adult population. Pray that the situation in this Federal Territory improves further,” he said on Twitter.

       In Kuala Lumpur until yesterday, 1.5 million or 85% of its population had received both doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, with the number exceeding the target of 80% or 1.48 million people.

       In Putrajaya, 81,543 individuals or 74% of its residents have completed their vaccination compared to the set target of 88,000 people or 80%, while 120,984 have received the first dose.

       In Labuan, 92% or 63,440 of the island’s population have received the first and second doses.