PUTRAJAYA: Being fully vaccinated gives a recipient more protection against Covid-19 deaths and severe symptoms, shows a Health Ministry survey.

       These were among the findings from a survey conducted on 1.2 million Covid-19 vaccinated people in the country between April 1 and Sept 12 by the Institute of Clinical Research (ICR).

       ICR director Dr Kalaiarasu Peariasamy said for that reason, it is vital that as many people in the country get their full dosage to receive the benefits of vaccination.

       “Our findings found that for those who are fully vaccinated, they are able to reduce the risk of admission into intensive care units (ICU) by 83%. But for those who are only partially vaccinated, the efficacy is about 38%.

       “Therefore, we can see here how important it is to complete your vaccination dosage to get high vaccine efficacy,” said Dr Kalaiarasu at an engagement session with the media on Thursday (Sept 23).

       In terms of deaths, being fully vaccinated reduces the risk of deaths by 87%, whereas the efficacy is about 49% for the partially vaccinated.

       Completing a vaccination dosage can prevent a symptomatic infection by 86%, while those who are partially vaccinated have only a 35% efficacy.

       “The message is very clear, those who are fully vaccinated get the maximum benefits from the vaccines in terms of preventing deaths, ICU admission and symptomatic infection.

       Dr Kalaiarasu said based on a real-world evaluation on 14,500,984 fully vaccinated individuals in the country (from April 1 to Sept 12), the rate of breakthrough deaths is 0.01%.

       Breakthrough infections mean a Covid-19 case that occurs in someone who has been fully vaccinated.

       Out of the 14,500,984 people who are fully inoculated, 1,445 have died.

       Of the 1,445 deaths, 1,108 have been fully vaccinated with the Sinovac vaccine. This is out of 7.2 million people fully vaccinated with Sinovac, or a rate of 0.015%.

       Another 323 breakthrough deaths were Pfizer recipients, out of 6.5 million people who have been fully inoculated with Pfizer in the country (0.005%).

       The AstraZeneca vaccine had 14 breakthrough deaths, out of 744,958 recipients of the vaccine - a rate of 0.002%.

       Dr Kalaiarasu said 76.3% of the breakthrough deaths involved those above 60 and 92% had comorbidities.

       The engagement session was led by deputy health director-general Datuk Dr Hishamshah Mohd Ibrahim and involved several other health experts as panellists.