HERE’S a fact that may surprise you: The number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in Malaysia now is almost three times Singapore’s 5.7 million population.
As of July 24, we have administered 16.9 million doses of the vaccine, of which 49.2% of the eligible adult population had received the first dose, while 23.1%, the second dose.
According to Oxford University’s Our World in Data website, Malaysia’s vaccination rate per 100 population reached a high of 1.27 on July 19. This is higher than the US which peaked at 1.01 vaccine doses per 100 people on April 13.
Thanks to the availability of huge supplies of vaccines in July, our vaccination rate has been ramped up to over 400,000 a day, hitting a daily high of over half a million doses on July 23.
In Singapore, only around 26,000 vaccines were administered per day, although the republic hopes to raise it to 48,000 so that two-thirds of its population will be fully vaccinated by its National Day on Aug 9.
Even if Singapore can hit the target, that’s just 10% of Malaysia’s daily capacity, if not less. Singapore also started its vaccination programme last December, some three months ahead of Malaysia’s.
The point in comparing Malaysia’s vaccination rate with that of Singapore’s is not to belittle the latter or that of other countries.
Our southern neighbour has a fairly commendable track-record in keeping a lid on the pandemic, save for incidents like clusters from its foreign workers’ hostels and the latest, infection from a KTV lounge.
Many Malaysians have always held Singapore as the high benchmark in achievements, including on COVID-19 vaccination.
Some months back, we frowned upon learning that at the then vaccination rate, Malaysia could only hit the herd immunity target in five years, while Singapore would achieve theirs by ear-end.
At our current rate, the Prime Minister has said that we are on track to have all eligible adults fully vaccinated by the end of October, although some estimates expect the target to be achieved sooner.
Our World in Data founder, Max Roser even tweeted about our achievements: “A positive development in Malaysia. The country is now vaccinating very rapidly.”
If a foreigner, whose profession revolves around global data and statistics can recognise the leaps and bounds we have made in our National Immunisation Plan (NIP), can we as Malaysians, take a moment to acknowledge the Government’s success in this?
Let’s give credit where credit is due.
As we know, the NIP is key in the country going back to its pre-pandemic days. With the National Recovery Plan (NRP) now being rolled out, coupled with our speedy vaccination rate, the light at the end of the tunnel is now shining brighter than before. – July 27, 2021
Louis Kang is from Ara Damansara.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
Photo credit: ORF
