M’sia tops vaccination rate
Percentage of those fully jabbed higher than US, data shows
PETALING JAYA: The percentage of Malaysia’s population who are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 is now higher than the figure recorded in many countries, including the United States.
According to Oxford University’s Our World in Data website, 59% of Malaysia’s total population was fully vaccinated as at Sept 24, compared to 54.4% in the United States.
Of the more than 200 countries and territories tracked by Our World in Data, 72 including Malaysia have gone past the halfway point or 50% fully vaccinated population figure.
The US, with a population of about 332 million, began its vaccine rollout in December last year while Malaysia started its vaccination programme on Feb 24.
In June, Malaysia’s vaccination programme started to pick up pace and on Sept 11 the share of fully vaccinated population in the country overtook the United States.
Among the Asean countries, Malaysia is currently third in terms of the percentage of population who are fully vaccinated.
Singapore is first at 77.38% with Cambodia second at 63.18% as at Sept 23.
Among countries with population sizes that are roughly the same or larger than Malaysia’s (30 million and above), 13 including Malaysia have fully vaccinated at least half their population.
Our World in Data attributes its country population estimates to the United Nations World Population Prospects report, and lists Malaysia’s estimated population at 32,776,195.
Malaysia’s Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force, meanwhile, uses a population estimate based on the Statistics Department and lists the country’s estimated population at 32,657,400.
As at Sept 25, a total of 42,106,397 vaccine doses have been administered in Malaysia.