PETALING JAYA: The government has ordered more than 76.1 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines as vaccination is the key to fighting the pandemic, says Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.The Prime Minister said the government was now aiming for 500,000 daily vaccinations to ensure that all Malaysian adults would have received two doses by October.
“Vaccination is our main key to success in fighting the Covid-19 pandemic. So, what should the government do?
“It ordered 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 yesterday.
(Covax is a global vaccine procurement initiative intended to secure inoculations for low- and middle-income nations.)
Muhyiddin said to date, Malaysia had received 20 million doses of vaccines that 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 October.
“The rest will be received between November this year and January 2022.
“Initially, 80% of the population was supposed to receive complete doses by the first quarter of 2022. This was then expedited to December this year,” he said.
The Prime Minister added that with the new, more infectious Covid-19 variants and a sudden surge in positive cases nationwide, the target of the vaccination programme had been expedited further.
“The whole adult population of Selangor and Kuala Lumpur will have received at least one dose by Aug 1 under Operation Surge Capacity,” he said.
“In Sarawak, the entire adult population there will have received at least one dose by the end of August.
“Most of the states will record a 50% vaccination rate by the end of next month and by September, all states will reach a 70% vaccination rate,” he added.
Muhyiddin said the adult population in the country would have received the complete doses by October.