PETALING JAYA (THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK, REUTERS) – More than two million Malaysians have registered for the Covid-19 vaccine, said the health ministry.

Health director-general Noor Hisham Abdullah said in a Facebook post that as at 11am on Friday (March 5),  2,024,356 people have registered through the MySejahtera app.

This is a jump of more than half a million people in a span of four days since Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said that as at 11am on Monday (March 1), 1,468,137 people had registered to be vaccinated through the app.

The country kicked off its mass vaccination programme on Feb 24, with Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin being the first to be vinoculated with the vaccine by US drugmaker Pfizer and German partner BioNTech.

There are three phases to the immunisation programme, with front-liners being vaccinated in the first phase from February to April.

The second phase runs from April and August this year, with high-risk groups and senior citizens aged 60 and above being vaccinated.

The rest of the Malaysian population aged 18 years and above will be vaccinated in the third phase, which is from May 2021 to February 2022.

The national Covid-19 immunisation programme is expected to be completed before the end of this year, ahead of its projected completion date in February next year.

Besides Pfizer, the country has granted conditional approval for the use of vaccines made by UK firm AstraZeneca and China’s Sinovac.

Health authorities are also evaluating the Covid-19 vaccine produced by Russia’s Gamaleya Research Institute, and the local bottling facility for Sinovac’s vaccine.

Malaysia aims to vaccinate at least 80 per cent of its population of about 32 million by February next year.

Last month, the government said it had secured 66.7 million vaccine doses, enough to more than cover its population.

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