KUALA LUMPUR • It was all systems go as two mega vaccination centres opened in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

The vaccination centres at KLCC Convention Centre and Axiata Arena Bukit Jalil began processing appointments at 9am.

Both centres saw a steady stream of people arriving as early as 8am. They were ushered in and assisted by volunteers and staff stationed there.

Volunteers included staff from Malaysia Airlines, who helped vaccine recipients register before guiding them towards the counselling area. Senior citizens were guided to a dedicated lane for speedier processing.

Among the first to arrive at the convention centre was retired soldier Abd Nassair Ghani, 59, who was accompanied by his daughter Asha Nur, 30.

"I am very impressed as the process was done in a very orderly and friendly manner," he said.

Mr Nassair said he arrived at the vaccination centre at about 8.30am and received his first dose of the Sinovac vaccine in less than 30 minutes.

"I am the first in my family to get vaccinated and hope that the rest will get theirs soon," he said.

Senior citizen Norma Jani, 64, said her vaccination process went very smoothly, adding that she had not experienced any side effects and felt fine.

"My appointment was at 8.30am and everything was completed by 9am. The staff members were friendly and I urge everyone to get their vaccination as soon as they can," she said.

Vaccination centre manager at KLCC, Dr Muhammad Afif Rafa'ai, said 3,000 people were registered for vaccination yesterday.

"We will increase it to a maximum of 8,000 over the coming days," he said.

Meanwhile, Malaysia's infectivity rate of Covid-19 dipped below 1.0 during the first week of the lockdown, recording 0.99 on Sunday, down from 1.07 on June 1.

On Twitter, health director-general Noor Hisham Abdullah shared data showing that the number of Covid-19 cases recorded daily had been significantly reduced, after peaking at 9,020 on May 29 when the infectivity rate was at 1.16.

The number of daily cases has dipped slightly since the country entered a lockdown on June 1.

A total of 5,271 new infections were reported yesterday. Another 82 deaths were recorded, bringing the death toll since the pandemic began to 3,460.

The Health Ministry also forecast that new cases would have gone above 10,000 if the national infectivity rate rose above 1.2 and standard operating procedures were not followed.

The last time the country's infectivity rate dipped below 1.0 was on April 7. It reached a peak of 1.21 on May 23, but has shown a decline since June 1.

An infectivity rate of above 1.0 means that more people will get infected and a value below 1.0 means the number of cases will go down.

As at yesterday, the Health Ministry reported 84,269 active cases in the country, with 902 patients being treated in intensive care units and 447 of them requiring respiratory support.

THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK