PETALING JAYA: With about three weeks to go till the end of August, Putrajaya has paved the way to achieve its target of fully vaccinating 60% of Malaysia’s adult population, but more needs to be done to increase vaccination coverage in underserved areas and convince those who are vaccine hesitant, said public health experts.

       Health experts also highlighted the problem that vaccination rates across the different states are not evenly distributed.

       Universiti Malaya Department of Social and Preventive Medicine Faculty of Medicine’s Prof Dr Moy Foong Ming believes the government’s target could be achieved if the number of vaccination is maintained above 400,000 doses daily.

       She however pointed out that the percentage of fully vaccinated individuals may not be evenly distributed across the states, with less than 50% of the adult population in Sabah, Kelantan, Kedah, Terengganu, Perak and Pahang having received their first dose.

       Until Aug 9, a total of 25,008,230 doses of vaccines have been administered so far at the 705 vaccine administration centres all over the country – 15,959,596 for a first dose and 9,048,634 for a second dose.

       According to the Special Committee for Ensuring Access to Covid-19 Vaccine Supply (JKJAV), this means that 38.7% of the adult population have received two doses of the vaccine and 68.2% have received at least one dose.

       Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said that all adults are estimated to be fully vaccinated by the end of October.

       He also said that by end of August, more that 60% of adults, or 40% of the total population would have been fully vaccinated.

       Dr Moy said that more effort is needed to encourage people from Sabah, Kedah, Kelantan, Terengganu, Perak and Pahang to register for vaccination as less than 80% of their population have done so.

       As of Aug 9, a total of 20,104,214 individuals have registered for their inoculations nationwide.

       “The government also needs to ensure all high-risk groups are fully vaccinated. It will be good if these data are available to the public so that targeted efforts by the NGOs can be made,” she said.

       She also suggested that an online centralised system be set up to give out appointments with date, time and venue to avoid overcrowding at the PPV as a result of walk-in vaccinations.

       She also urged the public to register for vaccination if they have not done so.

       “We need to get all adults, excluding those who are contraindicated, to be vaccinated in order to achieve high coverage to reduce the rate of transmission, hospitalisation and death, for us to return to normal life,” she said.

       According to data from the Ministry of Health, most of Malaysia’s Covid-19 infections, especially serious cases that require intensive care unit (ICU) treatment, are now among the unvaccinated.

       In the 14-day period from July 26 to Aug 8, a total of 249,102 Covid-19 cases were reported, of which 204,087 (81.9%) were classified as patients with no vaccination history.

       The remaining 45,015 (18.1%) cases were classified as patients with a history of vaccination, though no breakdown was available on how many among them had gotten one dose and how many had received both jabs.

       Malaysian Medical Association president Datuk Dr Subramaniam Muniandy said the vaccination target can be reached if there is adequate vaccine supply and people are keeping to their appointments or walking in for their shots.

       He added that more effort is needed to identify and engage vaccine hesitant or resistant groups, undocumented immigrants, as well as remote or immobile populations.

       Association of Private Hospitals Malaysia’s president Datuk Dr Kuljit Singh said if the public worked together and came out for their vaccinations without hesitation, then the target would be more achievable.

       With the available vaccine supplies now, Dr Kuljit said the government has done well in rolling out vaccination, adding that assistance by private hospitals too such as providing manpower at vaccination centres and having in-house vaccination centres has helped to accelerate vaccinations.

       “In the first six months it was not the government’s fault as there was a global shortage and we were not fortunate enough to receive vaccines in big numbers.

       “Now it’s for the people to come forward to get their vaccination. It’s made as easy as allowing walk-ins so there should be no excuses,” he said.

       He added that those who are still hesitating should be more responsible and must avoid listening to anti-vaccination groups.

       “Those who have not registered or taken the vaccine must remember that it is a clear message from the government that those who are not vaccinated will be subjected to strict SOP. They will not be allowed to take part in any social activities or travel. I think this is a good move. We have to help each other keep everyone safe,” he said.

       Chairman of the Technical Committee, Immunise4Life program Datuk Dr Ismail Zulkifli believed that it would not be a reasonable to expect to meet the target of getting 60% of the total population of the country vaccinated in three weeks.

       He said that certain areas that have already reached the target coverage like Sarawak and Labuan will sustain the rate, and some other areas will catch up at the current rate.

       “There will be certain areas, states, or districts that will need more effort,” he said.

       He added that based on the current available data, the Health Ministry can now show an inflection point at which the number of ICU admissions and deaths have dropped after reaching the threshold percentage of vaccine uptake, which should be about 50-60%.

       He said that while underserved populations will be covered by mobile teams, it’s people in the bigger cities and states that may be slow with uptake for a variety of reasons, one of which may be related to trust issues and the malicious spread of negative social media posts on vaccines.

       He said that compared with the numbers who want to get vaccinated, the number of hesitant individuals are really proportionally small, with this group subcategorised to the unsure, the hesitant, and the refusers.

       “Then there’s the small numbers of pro-choice, anti-vaccination proponents who are nonetheless loud and trying to convince others not to take the vaccine.

       “Covid-19 vaccines helped fuel their zest and purpose. The people should be able to discern the truth from fake or exaggerated news and conspiracy theories,” he said.

       He said that appropriate information by credible sources can sway the hesitant and unsure, and may make the refusers have doubts about the “facts” that they’ve been fed thus far.

       He said the government should show the effects of vaccination on cases, ICU admissions and deaths in areas where the vaccine uptake has been high like in Sarawak and Labuan, compared with where vaccine uptake is low.

       Labuan has reached a rate of 86.6% population who have received both doses, followed by Sarawak (75.3%), Klang Valley (53.7%), Negeri Sembilan (53.5%),

       So far, Malaysia has used three vaccines, made by Pfizer-Biontech, Sinovac and AstraZeneca.

       All of these vaccines require two doses, and an individual is only considered fully-vaccinated 14 days after their second dose.

       At the time of writing, the relevant authorities did not respond to The Star’s request for comments.