“100% of the adult population in Malaysia will receive the full doses of the vaccine by October 2021,” said Muhyiddin in a Facebook post.

He said the government initially planned for 80% of the population to be fully vaccinated by the first quarter of 2022, a target which was then brought forward to December.

However, the discovery of more aggressive Covid-19 strains and the sharp spike in Covid-19 cases meant the country’s vaccination programme needed to be further accelerated.

Speaking at a press conference on Friday, vaccine minister Khairy Jamaluddin had projected that 80% of the country’s adults would be fully vaccinated by Dec 31.

Among other targets Muhyiddin outlined today were for 100% of the adult population in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur to receive at least one vaccine dose by Aug 1, and 100% of the adult population in Sarawak to receive at least one vaccine dose by Aug 31.

“Almost all states will record vaccination rates exceeding 50% by the end of August and 70% by the end of September,” he added.

Muhyiddin said the government had ordered more than 76.1 million vaccine doses, with Pfizer making up the bulk at 70%.

Sinovac makes up 23.4% of the orders, followed by CanSino (10.9%), AstraZeneca (10%) and global vaccine sharing facility Covax (10%).

He added that Malaysia had received 20 million of the total number of vaccine doses ordered, with a further 10 million expected by the end of this month and another 10 million expected next month.

He added that the government expected delivery of 13 million vaccine doses in September and five million in October.

The remaining 18.1 million vaccine doses are expected to arrive from November to January.

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