Poor response to second booster dose

Sarawak records less than one per cent of total eligible population who have received next booster shot

KUCHING: Only 19,034 individuals, or 0.7 per cent of the total eligible population in Sarawak, have received the second Covid-19 booster dose as of yesterday.

The Ministry of Health (MoE) has advised individuals aged 60 and above and those with underlying health problems to take the second Covid-19 booster dose, following the rise of the Omicron BA.5 variant.

According to the ministry’s CovidNow website, 55.8 per cent or more than 1.57 million individuals across the state have been administered the first booster dose.

Over 2.4 million individuals, or 85.2 per cent of the total population, in Sarawak have been fully immunised against the virus.

Nationally, a total of 192,860 individuals, or 0.6 per cent of the total eligible population, have been given the second booster dose.

Over 16.16 million, or 49.5 per cent of the total population, nationwide have received the first booster dose, while the country’s fully vaccinated population stands at 83.8 per cent, or more than 27.35 million individuals.

Minister of Health Khairy Jamaluddin has said that the MoE was looking into recommendations of a second booster dose for individuals aged below 60 who had no health problems.

He said a request to the Technical Working Group had been made to lower the age of the second booster dose to 50, to allow more individuals to receive the booster shot.

Meanwhile, Malaysia breached the 4,000-mark of new Covid-19 cases again Thursday, with 4,098 infections recorded.

The last time the country saw over 4,000 daily cases was on July 7, with 4,020.

As at Thursday, the country recorded 4,608,768 cases in total, while the number of active cases standing at 38,913.

In Sarawak, the number of new daily cases has remained at two digits since July 10.

The state recorded 47 new infections on July 10, followed by 30 new cases on July 11, 49 new cases on July 12, 56 new cases on July 13, and 43 new cases yesterday.

Sarawak has recorded 308,557 infections, with 393 active cases as of yesterday.

The intensive care unit (ICU) bed utilisation rate for Covid-19 patients in Sarawak stood at 51.4 per cent on Thursday.

This was the fourth lowest in the country, and also below the national rate of 61.7 per cent.

Other states and territories that recorded ICU bed usage rates below the national level included Perak at 60 per cent, Terengganu (57.1 per cent), Labuan (57.1 per cent), Melaka (52.4 per cent), Penang (42.4 per cent), and Pahang (32.5 per cent).

Perlis had the lowest ICU bed utilisation rate, at 21.1 per cent.