Malaysia launches COVID vaccination; PM gets first shot
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Malaysia yesterday launched its COVID-19 inoculation program, which authorities hope will rein in a spike in infections and help revive an economy that recorded its worst slump in over two decades last year.
Malaysia has set an ambitious target of vaccinating at least 80 percent of its 32 million people by February next year.
Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin was the first to be given the vaccine, developed by US drugmaker Pfizer and German partner BioNTech, as part of government efforts to reassure people of the vaccine’s safety.
After Muhyiddin was given his shot, officials clapped in the health department office in the administrative capital of Putrajaya, before a group of health workers were also vaccinated.
“I am confident this vaccine is safe and effective,” Muhyiddin said, adding that the public should have faith in his government’s efforts to break the chain of COVID-19 infections.
The Southeast Asian nation had largely contained the virus for most of last year, but a spike in infections that started in September has placed Malaysia third in the region in total cases, behind Indonesia and the Philippines.
Malaysia has reported nearly 290,000 COVID cases and 1,076 deaths as of Tuesday, though new daily infections have started trending downwards in the past week.