The COVID-19 vaccine is highly effective in preventing severe symptoms from the virus, the government has reiterated.

Health Minister Dr Adham Baba said among some 500 healthcare workers who were infected with the virus after being vaccinated, only one has fallen beyond stage 4 (requiring ventilator support), while the others only had mild symptoms.

"This shows the efficacy of the vaccination in preventing severe symptoms," the New Straits Times (NST) quoted Adham saying in a joint press conference done virtually, with minister in charge of the National COVID-19 Vaccination Program, Khairy Jamaluddin.

Meanwhile, Free Malaysia Today reported Khairy announcing that about 10 percent of the country's population is expected to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by the middle of July.

According to him, Putrajaya is looking to administer some eight million doses in June, and aims to reach 10.7 million doses by mid next month.

"Currently, for every 100 doses we administer, 30 are the second doses. So, in order to fully immunise 10 percent of the population, or 3.2 million people, we need to administer roughly 10.7 million doses," he said.

To date, a total of 5.67 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered, of which 1.58 were second doses.

Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin recently announced that the country can only move into the second phase of the national recovery plan when 10 percent of the population has been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. The other criterias were the number of daily cases drop below 4,000, and the healthcare system is no longer at a critical level.

Today, the number of COVID-19 cases in the country breached the 700,000 mark. A total of 4,611 new cases were recorded, bringing the total tally to 701,019.

The number of deaths from the coronavirus as of yesterday, stands at 4,408.

More than 179 million people have been infected by the virus, and over 3.88 million have died from it, around the world.


Source: FMT, NST
Photo source: time.com