GEORGE TOWN (Penang, Malaysia) June 3 (NNN-Bernama) — Malaysia’s vaccination rate has surpassed Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam up till Wednesday, said National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme Coordinating Minister Khairy Jamaluddin.
He said this includes individuals who have at least received their first COVID-19 vaccine shot.
“Although this is not a race, it is good for us to benchmark our performance and in terms of daily injection rate, I have asked for it to be constantly improved from day to day.
“Yesterday, we recorded 105,655 vaccine injections, most of which were first dose shots,” he told a joint press conference with Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow after visiting a vaccination centre at The SPICE Arena here today.
Khairy, who is also Science, Technology and Innovation Minister, said the government has set a target of giving 150,000 vaccine shots per day by June before increasing them to 200,000 shots by July.
He said the target could be achieved through the establishment of more vaccination centers, including 1,000 private clinics nationwide as well as through the drive-through system.
On his visit, Khairy said the vaccination centre at The SPICE Arena would be used as the AstraZeneca vaccination centre in Penang starting June 7, with a total of 133,000 doses had been prepared for the first round of dispensing the vaccine.
“We will start with 1,000 vaccine shots a day and will increase to 3,000 a day on weekdays and 2,000 on weekends.
“The government is also looking into the proposal to set up vaccination centres in the Bayan Lepas and Batu Kawan industrial areas to facilitate the vaccination process for workers who have to work during the Movement Control Order,” he said.
Meanwhile, Chow said Penang needs to provide 9,000 to 10,000 vaccine shots daily to achieve the herd immunity target by October this year.
— NNN-BERNAMA