Rokiah Mahmud & James Kon
Some 8,239 children aged between five and 11 have received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine since the start of the immunisation programme for that age group, said Minister of Health Dato Seri Setia Dr Haji Mohd Isham bin Haji Jaafar during the daily press conference yesterday.
He said of the 19.2 per cent of children who have been inoculated against the virus, no serious side effects have been reported by their parents or guardians.
The minister said the support for the programme has been “very encouraging”, with 671 doses of the vaccine being administered to children on Wednesday alone.
He noted the low daily case numbers in the past few days, which is reflected on the R-naught (R0) value of 0.6, indicating in epidemiological term that the spread of the virus has slowed.
Dato Seri Setia Dr Haji Mohd Isham hoped that the daily cases will continue to decline to the point of recording two-digit number by Hari Raya Aidilfitri festivities next month.
He also said the ongoing COVID-19 Mobile Vaccination Clinic has administered 5,654 doses of the vaccine since the service was introduced on October 11, 2021.
The minister reiterated that members of the public in need of the mobile service can contact their respective village heads for arrangements to be made with the Ministry of Health (MoH).
Meanwhile, the booster rate has increased to 62.5 per cent of the population, said Dato Seri Setia Dr Haji Mohd Isham at the press conference, where he was accompanied by Permanent Secretary at the MoH Haji Maswadi bin Haji Mohsin.
