No point crowing about vaccination with so many deaths, says Anwar

 

Anwar Irahim said much of the problem stemmed from arrogance with some people feeling they know everything.

PETALING JAYA: The record number of Covid-19 vaccines administered in the country is hardly worth celebrating considering the high number of positive cases and deaths linked to the pandemic, said Anwar Ibrahim.

While the opposition leader said the increase in vaccination rates was something laudable, he said Malaysia was clearly “five or six months” behind other countries with its Covid-19 death rate among the highest in the world.

The country is in the midst of its biggest spike in Covid-19 positive cases and deaths, with a record 199 deaths today alone.

“For us to make a fuss about the high number of vaccines (administered)… taking them in their totality, we were late and we were weak (in procuring vaccines),” said the PKR president in a video on his Facebook page.

“There’s great propaganda going on now. We are distributing vaccines, but because of carelessness, the number of deaths have increased, the number of cases have increased,” he said.

A total of 15,071,814 Covid-19 vaccine doses have been administered in the country as of yesterday according to the Covid-19 vaccine supply access guarantee special committee (JKJAV), with 14.6% of the country’s population now fully vaccinated.

The first batch of vaccines arrived in the country in February, and after a slow start, vaccination rates have been ramped up and have averaged around 400,000 doses per day over the past week.

Anwar also noted that his prior suggestions such as widening the vaccine rollout by bringing in private clinics, and delaying administering the second dose of the Covid-19 vaccine so as to allow more people to at least receive their first dose, were only being considered now.

“Our problems stem from arrogance. Some people feel they know everything,” he said.

“This has caused the high death rate.”

The country recorded 11,985 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours, with the total number of infections now standing at 951,884. The 199 deaths in the past 24 hours took the number of fatalities to 7,440. - FMT