THE new government’s priority will be on comprehensive efforts to bring down the number of Covid-19 cases, said Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob.

Ismail, who took office yesterday, said the implementation of such efforts will be carried out through strategic inter-governmental cooperation and with the involvement of all stakeholders from both the public and private sectors.

“This is to ensure our national health care system is restabilised,” said the 61-year-old in his first speech as PM today.

Ismail said that his government will pursue the previous government’s efforts in implementing measures, in order to swiftly move to the next phase of recovery through herd immunity.

“Through the efforts of the previous government, the vaccination rate has become one of the fastest in the world. To achieve the herd immunity target sooner, this government will further strengthen the implementation of strategies and initiatives to increase the coverage of the Malaysia’s National Covid-19 Immunisation Program (PICK),” he said in the speech, which was televised live.

Today, the Special Committee for Ensuring Access to Covid-19 Vaccine Supply said about 54.3% of the adult population in Malaysia have been fully immunised with two doses.

The committee said 469,690 doses were administered yesterday, of which 309,898 were second doses while 159,792 were first doses.

With this, Putrajaya has fulfilled its target of immunising 50% of the country’s adult population against Covid-19 by Merdeka Day.

Labuan had the highest rate of full vaccination, with 90.6% of its adult population, or 62,071, people having received two doses.

In terms of quantity, the Klang Valley saw the highest number of doses dispensed, with 6.64 million first jabs and 5.01 million second jabs.

Cumulatively, 30.84 million doses of the vaccine have been administered since the vaccination drive began on February 24. – August 22, 2021.