Vaccination Drive Is Nation S Saving Grace In War Against Covid 19

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According to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Centre, Malaysia is the 13th country in the world with the highest overall vaccination rate.PETALING JAYA: While Malaysia crossed three million overall Covid-19 cases yesterday, a health think tank believes the country’s strong vaccination drive has averted what could have been an even worse health crisis.
The 22,802 new Covid-19 cases recorded yesterday brought Malaysia over the landmark figure, with the tally of 3,019,163 cases coming 749 days after the country recorded its first case on Jan 25, 2020 — an average of 4,031 cases a day.
The total number of Covid-19 deaths in Malaysia stands at 32,114 — meaning that roughly 0.01% of those infected have died due to the disease.
Galen Centre for Health and Social Policy chief executive Azrul Mohd Khalib said that while Malaysia once had one of the highest infection and death rates relative to its population in the region, the country’s vaccination programme has been its “saving grace”.
Azrul Mohd Khalib.“From being slow and behind, the achievement of having one of the highest vaccination rates in the region is remarkable. This ensures that we are able to cover and protect as much of the population as possible,” he told FMT.
“What we are concerned about are the rates of people needing hospitalisation due to severe diseases and dying as a result.
“Fortunately, due to the cooperation of the Malaysian people and the successful vaccination programme, both of these numbers are relatively lower than they could have been.”
Health ministry data show that nearly 98% of the country’s adult population and almost 90% of the adolescent population have received at least two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine.
According to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Centre, Malaysia is the 13th country in the world with the highest overall vaccination rate — ahead of even the United Kingdom, Australia and Japan.
While Azrul said the government deserves praise for the stellar vaccination drive, he noted that failure by public officials, political figures and prominent individuals to adhere to SOPs have contributed to a trust deficit and decreased confidence in its ability to manage the outbreak.
He also noted that some communities such as migrants and prisoners have been left behind in the vaccination drive.
Former deputy health minister Dr Lee Boon Chye also said the government must be credited with the country’s high vaccination rate, stating that the rate of hospital admissions and deaths have not increased proportionately with the current spike in Omicron cases.
Calling on the health ministry to use the pandemic as a starting point to roll out major reforms, the Gopeng MP said he hoped to see the end of “old habits and inefficient ways”.
“One key thing is digitalisation, which we have hardly accelerated during the pandemic,” he told FMT.
“In terms of disease control, improvement has been at a snail’s pace. The rakyat have high hopes for the health ministry right now and the expectations for higher expenditure is very much stronger.”
Apart from calling for more staff, Lee also said the ministry has to address other “chronic problems” such as the country’s high non-communicable diseases (NCD) burden, backlog in elective surgeries and the increase in mental health problems because of the pandemic. - FMT

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