Covid-19: Only 1.2 pct eligible recipients nationwide have taken second booster shot

KUCHING: Only 1.2 per cent or 402,116 eligible individuals across Malaysia have been administered the second Covid-19 vaccine booster as of yesterday.

According to the Ministry of Health’s (MoH) CovidNow website, 4,767 individuals in the country received the second booster dose on Wednesday.

In Sarawak, 1.1 per cent or 32,200 eligible individuals have been given the second booster vaccine, including 398 individuals on Wednesday.

Last month, the MoH announced that individuals aged between 50 and 59 were eligible for a second Covid-19 booster dose.

These individuals have been provided with an appointment booking link via MySejahtera for the booster jab.

Prior to the announcement, only those aged 60 and above, and those with comorbidities, individuals with long-term care facilities, those aged 18 to 59 with comorbidities, frontliners, and travellers going overseas were eligible for the second booster vaccine.

Meanwhile, the CovidNow website showed that less than half of the total population in Malaysia had received the first booster dose as of Wednesday.

The country’s first booster jab vaccination rate stood at 49.6 per cent, which translated into 16,197,694 individuals having been administered the dose.

On Wednesday, 955 individuals across Malaysia were given the first booster shot.

In Sarawak, the percentage was higher at 55.9 per cent, which translated into 1,578,958 individuals having been given the first booster dose.

Only 61 individuals in the state received their first booster jab on Wednesday.

As of the same day, a total of 27,468,521 individuals or 84.1 per cent of the country’s population had been fully immunised.

Sarawak’s full vaccination rate was slightly above the national rate at 85.8 per cent, which translated into 2,422,566 fully inoculated individuals.

Meanwhile, the state recorded 89 new Covid-19 cases Wednesday, bringing the cumulative number of infections to 310,578. There were still 804 active cases of Covid-19 in Sarawak.

Nationally, a total of 4,896 new Covid-19 infections were recorded Wednesday, which brought the cumulative number of Covid-19 cases in Malaysia to 4,719,394.