PRIME Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said today that all adults in Malaysia will be vaccinated by October, according to a new immunisation target set by the government to stem the recent surge in Covid-19 cases.

He said the fast-track approach in the national Covid-19 immunisation programme includes boosting the capacity for vaccinations to 500,000 doses per day, to tackle the emergence of new more vicious variants of the virus.

“Vaccination is the main key to our success in combating Covid-19. Under the original schedule, 80% of people living in Malaysia were to have been vaccinated by the first quarter of 2022.

“Then the target date was subsequently brought forward to December 2021. Now, the vaccination programme target (date) has been further accelerated,” he said in a statement posted on his Facebook page today.

He said the government is also aiming for 100% of the adult population in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur to be given at least one dose of the vaccine by August 1 as part of Operation Surge Capacity, while Sarawak is expected to hit this target by the end of August.

“Almost all states will achieve a vaccination rate of more than 50% by the end of August. All states will record a vaccination rate exceeding 70% in September,” he said.

Muhyiddin said the government had booked more than 76.1 million doses of vaccines, 70 per cent of which are Pfizer and the rest comprising Sinovac, AstraZeneca and CanSino.

He said Malaysia had received 20 million doses out of the amount booked.

“Delivery of the vaccines is expected to total 30 million doses by the end of this month, 40 million doses in August, 53 million doses in September and 58 million doses in October. The balance will be received between November and January 2022,” he added. – Bernama, July 18, 2021.