KUALA LUMPUR: Nearly 400,000 people, the majority of whom are frontliners have received the Covid-19 vaccine as of yesterday, thus approaching the target of inoculating 500,000 individuals in the first phase of the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (NIP).
Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba said a total of 399,525 doses of vaccines have been distributed - 395,006 of them being the first dose and 4,519 the second dose.
This number was achieved within 24 days since the Covid-19 vaccine was first distributed in the country on Feb 24 until yesterday, with an average of 16,646 vaccine shots administered in a day.
According to the vaccine distribution data in each state shared by Dr Adham on Twitter today, Selangor recorded the highest first dose distribution at 52,412, followed by Perak (47,056), Sabah (39,331), Kuala Lumpur (35,751) and Sarawak (32,907).
Besides that, Pahang had distributed 28,977 first doses, Johor (28,510), Kedah (26,259), Penang (24,996), Kelantan (18,617), Negri Sembilan (17,279), Terengganu (15,726), Melaka (10,716), Perlis (9,526) , Putrajaya (4,601) and Labuan (2,342).
Meanwhile, he said two states, Sabah and Negri Sembilan, have not started distributing the second dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, whereas 14 other states have started distributing them - ranging from one to almost 1,500 doses as of yesterday.
Sarawak registered the highest number with 1,487 second doses of the vaccine distributed as of March 19, followed by Pahang (781), Kuala Lumpur (565), Perak (475), Selangor (369), Penang (328), Melaka (187) and Perlis (154).
In addition, Putrajaya had distributed 85 second doses of the vaccine, followed by Johor (74), Kedah (six), Terengganu (six), Kelantan (one) and Labuan (one).
The NIP began on Feb 24 where Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin became the first individual in the country to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine, followed by a second dose on Wednesday.
Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin, who is also the Special Committee on Covid-19 Vaccine Supply Access Guarantee (JKJAV) co-chair became the first recipient of Sinovac's CoronaVac vaccine in Malaysia and received his first dose at the Rembau Hospital in Negri Sembilan.
Malaysia is currently in the first phase of the NIP, which aims to vaccinate about 500,000 frontline workers by April.
Phase 2 of the immunisation, which will involve Pfizer-BioNTech and Sinovac vaccines, is scheduled from April to August, for about 9.4 million senior citizens aged 60 and above and high-risk groups.
Phase 3 is scheduled to begin from May this year until February 2022 aimed at vaccinating about 13.7 million people aged 18 and above, both citizens and non-citizens.
Khairy had earlier said a total of 571,802 frontline workers who have been listed to receive the Covid-19 vaccine in the first phase of the NIP will receive their first doses by the end of this month.