Malaysia

Good start: 15% of kids aged 5 to 11 registered for vaccine, says Khairy

Health minister hopes half of total children population could be vaxxed by month-end

Updated 4 years ago · Published on 02 Feb 2022 3:03PM

Good start: 15% of kids aged 5 to 11 registered for vaccine, says Khairy
Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin says as of yesterday, 517,107 kids in the country have been registered by their parents and are in line for the Pfizer jab. – Bernama pic, February 2, 2022

by Amar Shah Mohsen

KUALA LUMPUR – Approximately 15% of children aged between five and 11 are registered for Covid-19 vaccinations ahead of the roll-out of the programme for adolescents.

Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said as of yesterday, 517,107 kids in the country have been registered by their parents and are in line for the Pfizer jab. 

“Good start. The Health Ministry will continue to communicate the benefits of getting vaxxed,” he posted on Twitter today. 

“I’m hopeful that almost half the kids in Malaysia will get vaccinated by the end of February.” 

Khairy said the Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force-Children, which is spearheaded by Deputy Health Minister Datuk Dr Noor Azmi Ghazali, will be working together with the Education Ministry for the programme. 

According to data provided by Khairy, Kuala Lumpur residents have the highest percentage of children showing interest in taking the vaccine, with 28% of the kids population already registered.

This is followed by Penang (22%), Johor (19%), Selangor (18%), and Putrajaya (15%), while Melaka (16%). 

Sabah (6%), Kelantan (6%), Perlis (7%) and Labuan (7%) have the lowest number of registrations.

The minister’s statement comes a day ahead of his press conference tomorrow morning in Kuala Lumpur, where he will be officially launching the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme for Children. 

The presser will be held at 10am in Tunku Azizah Hospital, here. 

On January 18, the Health Ministry’s social media and communications consultant, Aysha Ridzuan, had said that parents can soon begin registering their children for vaccinations via the MySejahtera application. 

Two days later, Khairy officially announced that parents may apply for vaccine appointments beginning January 31, with priorities given to parents residing in Klang Valley.

He had said that the vaccines will be administered in two doses with an eight-week interval from the initial jab to provide a higher efficacy rate as well as having the potential to provide longer lasting immunisation response. 

As of yesterday, 78.7% of the total population in the country have received at least two doses of the vaccine. 

Of the adult population, 97.9% are fully vaccinated, while 88.6% of teenagers aged between 12 and 17 have also received double shots. – The Vibes, February 2, 2022

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