More than 60,000 children given COVID-19 vaccine

KUALA LUMPUR: A total of 62,809 children aged between five and 11 years, or 1.7 per cent of their population in the country, have received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine as of yesterday.

They were given the vaccine under the National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme for Children (PICKids) which was launched last Feb 3 and will receive the second dose within an eight-week interval.

Based on the COVIDNOW website, a total of 12,769,610 individuals, or 54.5 per cent of the adult population in the country, have received the booster dose as of yesterday.

A total of 22,933,328 individua's or 98.0 per cent of the group have completed the vaccination and 99.2 per cent or 23,208,714 individuals have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

For adolescents aged between 12 and 17, a total of 2,793,710 individuals or 88.8 per cent of the population have completed the vaccination, while 2,871,310 individuals or 91.3 per cent have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

Yesterday, a total of 165,653 doses of the vaccine were administered, with 14,195 of them as first dose, 2,097 as second dose and 149,361 as booster dose, bringing the cumulative number of vaccine doses that were dispensed under the National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) to 64,434,353.

Meanwhile, according to the Health Ministry's GitHub portal, a total of nine deaths due to COVID-19 were reported yesterday, with two cases each in Perak and Sabah, and one case each in Johor, Kedah, Negeri Sembilan, Pahang and Selangor.

-- BERNAMA