It’s not enough, says Dr M despite Malaysia’s high vaccination rate

Dr Mahathir Mohamad today said Malaysia’s current Covid-19 vaccination rate of about 500,000 doses per day is not enough, despite the figure ranking among the highest in the world.

The former prime minister congratulated the government for the spike in the vaccine delivery rate to the public.

“But I think the number needs to be increased further to 800,000 a day, because of the increase in new cases due to too many of those infected being in our midst as they cannot be effectively quarantined,” he said in a post, hours after joining a crowd of MPs in Kuala Lumpur to protest the suspension of Dewan Rakyat proceedings due to the detection of new cases in the Parliament vicinity.

Hundreds of opposition supporters had earlier joined MPs to march to the Parliament building despite warnings against pandemic crowds.

Since it was launched in February, the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme has fully vaccinated 21% of the population.

The vaccination rate has been breaking daily records in terms of the total number of doses administered.

When the programme was first started, former prime minister Najib Razak predicted that Malaysia would not be able to achieve its herd immunity target.

Najib also said that Malaysia would need some six years to reach herd immunity, adding that the country was among the slowest in the Asean region.

The minister in charge of vaccination, Khairy Jamaluddin, said last week that the government is aiming to fully vaccinate 50% of the adult population by Aug 31.

The government is also finalising a draft of relaxed SOPs for those who have been fully vaccinated, with an announcement to be made by Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.