Coronavirus Vaccination

Muhyiddin gets first jab as inoculation campaign kicks off in Malaysia

Start date of exercise brought forward by two days; general public to be vaccinated from May

Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin receiving his first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine at a public clinic in Putrajaya yesterday. The event was broadcast to the public with the aim of showing Malaysians the steps involved in the v
Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin receiving his first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine at a public clinic in Putrajaya yesterday. The event was broadcast to the public with the aim of showing Malaysians the steps involved in the vaccination. PHOTO: BERNAMA

Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin became the first person in Malaysia to receive a Covid-19 vaccine shot yesterday, as the country rolled out its nationwide vaccination campaign two days earlier than scheduled.

Tan Sri Muhyiddin received the first of the two-dose Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine at a public clinic in Malaysia's administrative capital of Putrajaya.

The second person to be inoculated was front-line worker Clement Marai Francis, a driver for the Putrajaya clinic.

Health Director-General Noor Hisham Abdullah, who is the face of Malaysia's coronavirus response, was the third individual in the country to receive the first dose of the vaccine.

Mr Muhyiddin and Tan Sri Noor Hisham received their shots within 20 minutes of arriving at the clinic in a publicly broadcasted event that was aimed at showing Malaysians the steps involved in the vaccination.

After registration, those who turn up at clinics would be briefed about the vaccine in a separate room, before proceeding to receive their jabs. They would then be asked to wait in an observation room for at least 15 minutes for the monitoring of any side effects.

Mr Muhyiddin had volunteered to be the first person to receive the vaccine to build public confidence in the inoculation process.

A survey by the Health Ministry in December last year showed one-third of Malaysians remained sceptical of vaccines and worried about side effects.

Malaysia had initially planned to start its mass vaccination campaign tomorrow. But with the vaccines arriving ahead of schedule on Sunday, the authorities brought forward the start date of the vaccination exercise.

The country aims to inoculate close to 83 per cent of its 33 million population within the year.

It will vaccinate elected representatives, healthcare workers and other front-liners in the first phase expected to last until next month.

The second phase will involve higher-risk groups, such as individuals with certain existing illnesses and those above 65.

The country aims to begin administering vaccines to the general populace from May.

All vaccines will be made available for free, including for foreign workers, expatriates, refugees and undocumented migrants.

The first batch of vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech consisted of 312,390 doses which arrived on Sunday. Another 182,520 doses are scheduled to arrive next week.

The country has inked a deal to buy a total of 25 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which will cover 39 per cent of its population. It has also ordered a total of 6.4 million doses from British-Swedish pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca, signed a deal for 12 million doses from China's Sinovac and ordered another 6.4 million doses of Sputnik V vaccine from Russia.

The authorities said last week that they were in the final stages of talks with United States company Johnson & Johnson to procure its single-dose vaccine.

Malaysia yesterday recorded 3,545 new Covid-19 infections.

Twelve new coronavirus fatalities were logged, raising the death toll to 1,088.

On the positive side, 3,331 patients recovered and were discharged, lowering the number of patients in hospitals and at government centres to 30,677. This compares with a peak of 51,783 cases just two weeks ago on Feb 11.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on February 25, 2021, with the headline Muhyiddin gets first jab as inoculation campaign kicks off in Malaysia . Subscribe