It is hoped that there will be more efforts to increase awareness on the importance of getting vaccinated for Covid-19, says minister

by S BIRRUNTHA / pic by MUHD AMIN NAHARUL

ABOUT 47.7% or 24,600 of tertiary students in the country have not registered for Covid-19 vaccination, said Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba.

The co-chairman of the Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF) said the data from the Higher Education Ministry showed that a total of 547,595 or 53.2% students in both public and private higher learning institutions have been fully vaccinated as of Sept 7.

“More than 195,000 or 37.5% of students in public higher learning institutes do not have Covid-19 vaccine registration records.

“Similarly, some 51,000 or 10.2% of students in private higher learning institutes have not registered for the vaccination,” he said in a statement yesterday. He hoped that there will be more efforts to increase awareness on the importance of getting vaccinated for Covid-19.

Meanwhile, Dr Adham announced yesterday that the Covid-19 walk-in vaccination programme in the Klang Valley will be stopped on Sept 15.

He said the decision was made after taking into account the small number of people who have yet to be vaccinated in the Klang Valley, as well as the low attendance reported at vaccination centres (PPVs).

“This means that Klang Valley residents who have not received their Covid-19 vaccination can get their jabs at selected health clinics from Sept 16 onwards.

“The list of health clinics will be announced later,” he noted.

Dr Adham said, however, walk-ins in other states will still continue and the public is advised to follow the latest updates from their state Health Departments regarding the walk-in programme.

He added that the CITF outreach programmes in collaboration with various NGOs will continue its “mop-up” initiative. Dr Adham said as of Sept 7, about 69.9% of the total adult population in the country have completed their Covid-19 vaccination.

The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme’s target was to inoculate 80% of the country’s adult population and for each state, at least 60% of the adult population will be fully vaccinated by the end of this month.

“Our country is now on the right track and our vaccinations have reached a commendable rate,” he noted, adding that the decline in vaccination rate shows that many more Malaysians had received their Covid-19 jabs.

Accordingly, he said there will be a further decrease in the country’s vaccination rate in the coming weeks.

Yesterday, Malaysia recorded 19,733 new Covid-19 cases with Sarawak recording the highest number with 3,100 cases followed by Selangor (2,989), Penang (2,474), Sabah (2,067), Johor (1,867), Kedah (1,564), Kelantan (1,471) and Perak (1,319).

This has brought the total number of infections in Malaysia to 1,900,467 cases.

As of yesterday, 904 Covid-19 patients were admitted to the intensive care units while 361 deaths were reported, increasing the total fatalities to 19,163.

A total of 22,701 new recoveries were recorded, bringing the overall recovery rate to 1,632,631.

Meanwhile, the National Security Council announced that the Enhanced Movement Control Order (EMCO) will be enforced in Putatan, Sabah and Jerantut, Temerloh and Rompin, Pahang from Sept 10 to 23.

The EMCO in Kampung Orang Asli Simpang Arang in Johor Baru, Johor and Mukah, Sarawak, have been extended to Sept 16 while that of Papar and Ranau, Sabah to Sept 23.