In a statement, Association of Private Hospitals Malaysia president Dr Kuljit Singh said they welcomed the government’s decision to offer third jabs to high-risk groups, including healthcare frontliners and the elderly with comorbidities, after 80% of the adult population have been fully vaccinated.

“Private hospitals will once again offer our assistance to vaccinate these groups as soon as the guidelines are available from the health ministry.

“It very timely that the government has made this crucial decision on the third dose as many other countries have already commenced this exercise.

“Early participation by private hospitals and general practitioners will be important to enhance the availability of the third dose of vaccines to the selected groups.”

According to the health ministry’s CovidNow database, 80% of the adult population should be fully vaccinated as of tomorrow.

Kuljit said boosters could be timely, given that the first round of vaccine recipients would have been immunised in February and March and some studies suggesting that immunity levels could have begun to wane by now.

He also encouraged those who were still reluctant to take the vaccines to be responsible and get immunised as soon as possible so that more of the economy can be opened up and hospitalisation of Covid-19 cases can be reduced.

“The strength of the herd immunity is dependent on the vaccinated population, while the third dose should further fortify the protection.”

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