PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia has not been ‘slow’ in carrying out its vaccination exercise, National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme Coordinating Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said today.

To date, a total of 1,144,841 COVID-19 vaccine doses from the total 1,559,540 received so far have been given, he said, adding that 701,812 individuals have received their first dose while 443,029 people have been fully vaccinated with the required two doses.

On claims that Malaysia’s vaccination rate was slow despite having sufficient vaccine supply, Khairy said the government understands the people’s concerns, but they will still have to stick to their scheduled turns and phases. 

“As informed before this, everyone has to wait their turn as scheduled as how the first phase was for the frontliners, the second for senior citizens and so forth. We have to stick to the phases according to the respective categories,” he said.

Khairy, who is Science, Technology and Innovation Minister, told reporters this at a joint press conference with Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba on developments concerning the programme. 

Khairy said Malaysia’s vaccination programme follows scheduled phases, similar to the one adopted by other countries such as the United Kingdom (UK), which uses the age chart. 

However, the UK only opens vaccination registration once the recipients are eligible according to their respective age group, while in Malaysia, registration is open to all at one go regardless of age or category. 

He said to date, a total of 8,992,832 individuals have registered for vaccination on the MySejahtera application, with those aged 60 and above totalling 1,438,974 people, the disabled (136,798 people) and individuals with chronic diseases a total of 2,029,297 people. 

The state with the highest achievement ratio of vaccine registrations is Putrajaya with 98 per cent, followed by Selangor and Kuala Lumpur with 50 per cent each, Penang (45 per cent) and Negeri Sembilan 44 per cent.

He also said that Malaysia is due to receive additional supplies of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine totalling 128,700 doses on April 21, followed by 36,270 doses on April 22 and a further 12,870 doses on April 23. 

— BERNAMA