PETALING JAYA • Malaysia is close to completing first vaccination doses for all eligible adults in the Klang Valley, the country's hardest-hit region which continues to see Covid-19 cases soar.
As at Friday, over 5.5 million people representing 90.3 per cent of the adult population in Selangor, the capital Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya had received their first dose, according to the task force in charge of immunisations.
The effort to ramp up jabs, known as Operation Surge Capacity, had aimed to finish dispensing first doses to the estimated 6.1 million residents in the Klang Valley aged 18 and above by today.
"We will be close to achieving the 6.1 million target, but we will need to consolidate all of the relevant data after Aug 1," Bangi Member of Parliament Ong Kian Ming, who is coordinating the operation for the Selangor state government, said on Saturday.
The operation has also helped increase the number of those in the Klang Valley receiving their second dose of the Covid-19 vaccine. As at Friday, over 2.1 million people, or 34.3 per cent of the region's adult population, had received their second dose.
Malaysia's daily infections have shown little sign of slowing in recent weeks, registering 17,150 new cases yesterday after spiking to 17,786 cases on Saturday.
Another 160 people died of Covid-19 yesterday, bringing the death toll to 9,184.
More than 30 per cent of the 165 Covid-19 deaths recorded on Saturday were from Selangor, director-general of health Noor Hisham Abdullah said.
Coordinating Minister for the national vaccination programme Khairy Jamaluddin said yesterday that the government was optimistic it would hit its target of fully vaccinating half of the adult population nationwide by Aug 31.
"I have already announced that on National Day on Aug 31, 50 per cent of the adult population will be fully vaccinated. That is our new target," he told reporters.
Malaysia has ramped up its vaccination effort to tackle surging infections fuelled by the more transmissible Delta variant of the coronavirus. Mr Khairy said 29 per cent of the country's adult population had completed both doses of the vaccine so far.
Meanwhile discreet social gatherings have contributed to the sharp rise in Covid-19 cases in Terengganu, said the eastern state's Menteri Besar Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar on Saturday.
He said the recent Hari Raya Haji festivities were also a factor, as people did not comply with health protocols and travelled in breach of existing movement controls, reported national news agency Bernama.
"This includes inter-state and inter-district travel without permission during the celebration," he said in a video posted on Facebook.
Terengganu recorded a sharp increase in daily Covid-19 cases on Saturday with 883 new infections, comprising 860 local transmissions. It was the highest number since the start of the pandemic.
THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
