KUALA LUMPUR, Mar 1 — Public registration for the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme remains overwhelmingly low at just over six per cent, according to Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation Khairy Jamaluddin, who vowed to raise awareness about the importance of vaccination.

Registration for the programme, which can be done via the smartphone application MySejahtera, was open to the public starting last week when health authorities began giving shots to health frontliners as part of the plan’s first phase.

"In terms of the percentage, the number of people who have registered is just 6.1 per cent only when our target is 80 per cent of the population, so the rate of registration is still very low,” the Rembau MP told a media briefing after co-chairing the immunisation task force meeting here today.

"I think we need to step up efforts to get more to register to get their vaccines.”

Public health authorities have vaccinated up to 17,064 people to date with Kuching in Sarawak topping the list by districts, having inoculated 1,677 people. 

Sibu, Sabah, is next with 1,360 people already vaccinated followed by Perak’s Kinta district (1,141), Kuantan, Pahang (1,075), and Mukah, Sarawak (822).

Khairy, the minister overseeing the immunisation programme, had previously expressed confidence that the government could meet its target of vaccinating up to 70 per cent of the country’s 33 million population as early as year end, two months ahead of the official deadline.

Its success, however, will hinge on the efficiency in administering the programme as well as adequacy of vaccine supply, the Rembau MP stressed.