PETALING JAYA: Less than half of the Malay population have taken their Covid-19 booster shots, says Khairy Jamaluddin.
The Health Minister tweeted that only 47.9% of Malays nationwide had taken the third dose of Covid-19 vaccine as of Feb 10.
Comparatively, a chart posted showed 81.3% of Chinese and 56.4% of Indians have taken the booster shot, followed by 50.6% of others, and 49.6% of Orang Asli and other Bumiputera groups.
"The daily dispensing of booster doses has picked up.
"Booster doses provide good protection especially during Omicron waves.
"80% of Chinese society is boosted.
"But we need more robust communication on Facebook because Malays are still below 50%," he said.
Khairy then congratulated Sarawak for being the best with 80% of Malays vaccinated, followed by Chinese (85.6%), Indians (79.1%), Orang Asli and other Bumiputera groups (76.5%) and others (47.5%).
He also shared a breakdown of data in states where uptake of booster doses among Malays was above 50% were in Sarawak (80%), Malacca (64.6%), Labuan (62.3%), the Klang Valley (59.5%), and Negeri Sembilan (55.7%).
The states with the lowest booster uptake overall was Sabah (24.8%), followed by Kelantan (25.3%) and Perlis (30.9%).
Johor, which was about to hold a state election, only has 57% booster coverage.
According to a heatmap of third-dose uptake in Johor, Muar was 71% covered while Johor Bahru was at 67%.
However, three districts were below 40% coverage, namely Segamat (37%), Pontian (35%) and Mersing (32%).
Malaysia was pushing for adults to get booster shots in an effort to mitigate the impact of the Omicron variant of Covid-19.
Studies indicate that a third dose offers better protection against Omicron.
Pemberian dos penggalak harian mula meningkat semula. Dos penggalak memeberi perlindungan yang baik terutama dalam gelombang Omicron. 80% masyarakat Cina boosted. Namun perlu komunikasi yang lebih mantap di Facebook sebab Melayu < 50%. Sarawak terbaik. pic.twitter.com/vONFLhX59C
— Khairy Jamaluddin (@Khairykj) February 11, 2022