THE government must be specific in stating when in June can it achieve a vaccination rate of 150,000 doses per day, said Yeo Bee Yin.

Yeo, the former science, technology and innovation minister, also asked her successor Khairy Jamaluddin, whether the 150,000 doses per day was the maximum or average vaccination rate. 

Khairy is also the coordinating minister for the National Immunisation Programme. 

“I would like to seek clarification from the minister about his announcement of the government’s plan to ramp up the daily vaccination rate to 150,000 doses per day. 

“Is it by June 1, mid-June or end-June? This is because delay in weeks can be a matter of life and death to hundreds of Malaysians. 

“I would also like to know whether the 150,000 doses per day target is the maximum daily vaccination rate or the average? This is because I’ve noticed that the government tends to announce the daily vaccination rate on the days when it was high or use the language of ‘daily vaccination rate up to xxxx’ instead of giving a seven-day average so as to paint a better picture than reality on the ground,” the DAP lawmaker said in a statement today. 

On Thursday, Khairy said Malaysia would receive an additional delivery of vaccines from Pfizer, Sinovac and AstraZeneca in the coming months to speed up the national immunisation rollout.

He said with the additional vaccine delivery, the government projected to administer 150,000 doses a day in June.

Yeo, who is Bakri MP, said with skyrocketing infection rates, vaccination rates should increase beyond 150,000 doses per day by involving private general practitioners and government clinics nationwide. 

She said that delay in vaccination rollout has significantly impacted on the number of positive cases reported daily. 

Yeo said based on the previous estimation of supply and demand curve by the government, the cumulative vaccine administered should be at around six million by now. 

This is by assuming 80% usage rate of the total supply of about eight million by the end of this month, she said. 

However, due to the hiccups in getting vaccine supply, as of Thursday, only 2.7 million doses have been administered – 1,725,364 with their first dose and 987,012 their second dose. 

“More than 1,000 people have died from Covid-19 in just May alone. If our vaccination rollout were to run as what the government has previously planned, these people did not necessarily need to die! 

“Many more did not necessarily need to go through the suffering Covid-19 sickness caused. Indeed, delay in vaccination has caused unnecessary deaths.” – May 30, 2021.