MALAYSIA must consistently provide 200,000 vaccine doses daily and push to 300,000 within the next few weeks to achieve targets set by Putrajaya in the Covid-19 exit plan, said medical experts.

That has only been achieved once, yesterday when 215,876 doses were given out. 

But experts told The Malaysian Insight the feasibility of vaccinating a large number of the population by November depended on many factors, the key being capacity and availability of vaccines.

Universiti Putra Malaysia medical epidemiologist Assoc Prof Dr Malina Osman said Putrajaya’s goal to fully vaccinate 40% of the population by September and 60% by November appeared realistic.

“At the current vaccination rate of 200,000 (a day), by September 1, at least 18 million (56%) Malaysians would have received the first dose.

“If we can increase vaccinations to 300,000 per day from July onwards, my estimation would be, we can achieve the targeted vaccination rate,” Malina told The Malaysian Insight.

In his speech yesterday, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said the vaccination capacity will be increased to 300,000 doses daily in the coming months to achieve the vaccination goal.

At the current vaccination rate of 200,000 doses a day, Malaysia will need 64 days to administer the first dose of the vaccines to 40% (12.8 million people) of the population by mid-September.

For 60% (19.2 million people) of the population to receive the first dose, it will take 96 days, which is achievable by mid-October. Both doses can be administered within the same time frame if daily vaccination rates are brought up.

Malaysian Public Health Physicians Association president Dr Zainal Ariffin Omar agreed with Malina that the vaccination goal was achievable, but it was dependent on the volume and supply of vaccines.

“The most important is enough supply and with the addition of new single dose vaccines (it is achievable),” he said.

Yesterday, the Drug Control Authority (DCA) gave conditional approval to two single dose vaccines from China-based CanSino Biologics Inc, and the Janssen Covid-19 Vaccine by Johnson & Johnson. This can significantly speed up the vaccination efforts.

Malaysia is currently only administering the PfiZer-BioNTech, Sinovac and AstraZeneca vaccines. It has ordered enough supplies to vaccinate 105.56% of the population.

However, the vaccine rollout has been painfully slow.

Up till June 11, only 8.3% of the 44.8 million doses of Pfizer vaccine has been delivered. For Sinovac, only 25.89% of 12 million doses were delivered and for AstraZeneca, through the Covax facility, Malaysia received 12.94% of the 6.4 million doses ordered.

The remaining 6.4 million doses from AstraZeneca’s Thailand plant has been delayed.

Zainal said the government needed to work out a detailed plan of action for the recovery plan to move forward. 

“(We) have to have to revise the current plan and strategy. This includes the vaccination modalities and delivery channels such as other government agencies, civil society groups and private sectors. (We also) have to mobilise all sectors and communities,” he said.

To increase the numbers who have signed up for the vaccine, Zainal said Putrajaya should start vaccinating children aged 12 and above on top of those aged 18 and above, in line with the DCA’s decision to allow children aged 12 and above to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

Zainal also suggested the registration and adverse effect monitoring system (vaccine side effects) be improved to allow the recovery plan to move on smoothly.

Malaysia started its national immunisation programme in February this year. In the five months, it has vaccinated 4,904,109 people (as of June 15). Only 1,468,689 have received both jabs.

This brings into question whether the government’s plan to vaccinate close to 20 million people in the coming months is feasible.

As of 2pm today, 13,837,410 individuals above the age of 18 have signed up to be vaccinated. – June 16, 2021.