New record in daily jabs good news for herd immunity, says PM

The daily Covid-19 vaccination rate which surpassed 420,000 doses yesterday is good news for Malaysia in the country’s efforts to achieve herd immunity before the end of the year, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said today.

“This is good news because it (the daily vaccination rate) is among the highest in the world and if we follow the vaccination phases, I think we can achieve the number of people that need to be vaccinated before the end of this year, and the process seems to be running smoothly,” he told reporters after visiting Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital (HTAR) in Klang.

Muhyiddin said he had also ordered Khairy Jamaluddin, the minister in charge of the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme, to purchase any available vaccines.

“Although we have purchased a lot (of vaccine), the delivery was delayed. So if there are available supplies, or if Pharmaniaga, for example, can supply us with two or three million doses more, we will buy it.

“This is the commitment of the Perikatan Nasional government,” he said.

Yesterday, the country’s daily vaccination rate hit a record high of 421,479 doses comprising 264,034 first doses and 157,445 second doses.

For the management of Covid-19 in the Klang Valley, Muhyiddin said an additional allocation of RM100 million had been set aside for outsourcing activities, and another RM20 million for mental health management.

He said an additional allocation of RM5 million to increase hospital areas in Selangor and a Covid-19 allowance of RM1,000 a month for each staff at ICUs had also been made.

Muhyiddin added that the government had agreed to the setting up of a child nursery or the renting of premises for the children of frontliners with an allocation of RM1.5 million and a special quarantine centre for frontliners with an allocation of RM2 million.