Less than half of Malays have received booster jab, health ministry says

Fewer than half of the Malays in the country have received a booster dose of Covid-19 vaccine, the health ministry revealed today as the government ramps up its vaccination drive with jabs rolled out this month for children aged five to 11.

A table revealing booster coverage by race as of Feb 10 shows that 47.9% of Malays in the country have received a third dose – the lowest percentage among the three major races in Malaysia.

Meanwhile 81.3% of Chinese have received a booster jab and 56.4% of Indians.

A state-by-state breakdown shows that Sarawak has the highest number of Malays vaccinated with a third dose at 80%, while 85.2% of Chinese and 79.1% of Indians have been given a booster jab.

In all other states, however, including the Klang Valley which covers Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya, the percentage of Malays who have received a booster shot is below 65%.

“80% of the Chinese have been boosted,” Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said in a Twitter post accompanying the table.

“Better communication is needed on Facebook as the Malays are below 50%. Sarawak is the best.”

The government began administering booster shots for fully vaccinated people on Oct 13 last year.

As of yesterday, 12,926,703 individuals or 55.2% of the adult population had received a booster dose.

Khairy warned earlier this week that senior citizens and those inoculated with the Sinovac jab would need to receive a booster shot by March 1 or lose their fully vaccinated status.

He said then that some 3.5 million individuals inoculated with Sinovac had yet to receive a booster shot, along with 32% or about a million senior citizens.