KUALA LUMPUR, July 22 — The country’s daily vaccination rate rose above the 400,000-dose mark again yesterday, following a sharp dip in the previous day owing to a national holiday.

According to the Special Committee on Ensuring Access to Covid-19 Vaccine Supply (JKJAV), health workers gave out 446,052 doses of the vaccine across yesterday.

This is the second-highest number for daily vaccinations in the country and just under the record of 460,123 set on July 15.

Of the doses administered, the JKJAV said 282,980 were for those receiving their first shot while the remaining 163,072 went towards those getting their second dose for full protection.

Cumulatively, Malaysia has now given out over 15.5 million doses of the vaccine, of which 10.5 million were for first doses.

The figure meant that over 45 per cent of the country’s adult population was partially protected from receiving one dose of the vaccine while another 21 per cent have been fully vaccinated.

Malaysia has been ramping up its vaccination rate sharply, with an eye on achieving around half a million daily vaccinations in order to meet the government’s accelerated target of immunising the country’s entire population against Covid-19 by October.

The government has focused on vaccinating the country in order to suppress the pandemic as the various lockdowns imposed since last year have become increasingly ineffective in breaking the chain of Covid-19 infections.

This is primarily due to the emergence of the highly contagious and airborne Delta variant of the disease, which Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said was able to cause an infection within just 15 seconds of exposure.

Yesterday, the country added another 11,985 more Covid-19 patients and a record of 199 deaths.

When the country began Phase One of the National Recovery Plan on June 1, there were 7,105 new infections and 71 deaths on the day.

On May 31, just before the National Recovery Plan began, Malaysia’s death toll from Covid-19 had been 2,796. Yesterday, the figure rose to 7,440, which means 4,644 people have died from Covid-19 in the country since the start of the NRP.