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Malaysia PM’s desperate vaccine plea
Malaysia’s citizens are being urged to ‘hurry’ and get vaccinated as the delta variant of the virus sweeps across the world
Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob on Monday sent an urgent plea to Malaysians to get vaccinated immediately to help the country recover from pandemic.
“We must continue to fight the COVID-19 pandemic as our main enemy,”
he said in a televised address ahead of Malaysia’s 64th national day celebrations.
Vaccines are the way out – the PM said
Mr Ismail Sabri noted that vaccines have been shown to have a positive impact on combating the pandemic.
“This success will pave the way for economic recovery in this country and allow us to live in the new normal. The economy should be restored, the well-being of the people should be improved, investor confidence should return, therefore, I would like to call on the Malaysian family to get vaccinated immediately to help in the country’s efforts to recover.”
The leader noted that ‘based on data and facts, vaccinations would “combat the war against the COVID-19 pandemic and it will end in victory,”
In his speech, the prime minister also reflected on Malaysia’s journey to achieve independence over the last four centuries and called on people to use these lessons to overcome challenges in the present day as a united “Malaysian family”.
Malaysia is in the midst of a tough battle against COVID-19, having averaged more than 20,000 daily cases over the last week
On Monday, the country recorded 19,268 cases and 295 deaths.
There have been more than 1.7 million COVID-19 cases in Malaysia so far and around 16,400 deaths in total.
As of Monday, 62.6 per cent of the adult population have been fully vaccinated. The government is aiming to raise this figure to 100 per cent by the end of October.