PUTRAJAYA (July 13): Some foreign analysts did not give an accurate picture of the Malaysian Covid-19 vaccination programme as they did not use the latest data in making their comparative analysis, Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah said.
He said information provided by a vaccine tracker last April projected that Malaysia would take 4.9 years to fully vaccinate 75% of its population.
“However, if we were to refer to the same tracker today, the 4.9-year period has changed to only five months. This new projection is based on the daily vaccination rate of 262,000 doses. So, if based on a daily vaccination rate of 375,000 doses, the target of vaccinating 75% of the population can be reached within three to four months,” he said in a statement today.
The minister said when the tracker published its projection last April, the Malaysian government had already issued its vaccination rollout plan, but the information was not used in the analysis.
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“This causes the not-so-good assessment of Malaysia’s position during the publication of the projection. Selective data analysis like this does not give a true picture of reality and can cause public distrust,” he said.
Saifuddin said even though the parties involved had corrected the information, the spread of the inaccurate information had already been done.
While calling on all quarters to give their full cooperation in the implementation of the national Covid-19 vaccination programme by sharing only authentic and verified information, he said vaccination is indeed the best way to protect lives and bring the country out of the pandemic.
He said the implementation of the immunisation programme has shown encouraging results so far as 11 million shots of the Covid-19 vaccine have been administered so far and the country is on the right track to achieve herd immunity by end of this year.
Citing the data from the Ministry of Health, Saifuddin said the vaccination rate for every 100 people in Malaysia is much better than other countries including the United States, South Korea and the United Kingdom.
