THE public’s response towards taking the Covid-19 booster doses is still not up to par, Dr Zaliha Mustafa said today.

The health minister, however, said the acceptance of booster doses showed an increase across the country following a campaign by the ministry. 

“The take-up rate of the first booster shot has increased from 49.9% to more than 50% now and rate of the second booster shot has risen from 1.9% to 2.2% in the last few weeks,” the Sekijang MP said in a question-and-answer session in the Dewan Rakyat.

Zaliha was responding to a question from Rosol Wahid (Hulu Terengganu-PN), who asked if the government was satisfied with people’s response to Covid-19 booster doses. 

To encourage the take-up of the booster doses, Zaliha said the ministry has taken several measures, including allowing appointments to be made through the MySejahtera app without being bound by time and place, and offering vaccinations on a walk-in basis to high-risk groups. 

She said government health clinics will recommend booster doses to patients based on their health status. 

She also said the trend of Covid-19 infections in January was stable. 

“The average daily number of new Covid-19 cases in a seven-day period was 187 to 511 throughout January,” she said. 

“Furthermore, the Rt value (effective reproduction number) has remained below 1.0 since Epidemiology Week 46/2022 (November 13-19, 2022). 

“For Epidemiology Week 4/2023 (January 22-28, 2023), the Rt value was 0.8.” – March 8, 2023.