SELANGAU (Sarawak), March 25 — The setting of a deadline for Covid-19 vaccine registration will enable the government to plan better on vaccine procurement and speed up the national immunisation programme, said Deputy Health Minister Datuk Aaron Ago Dagang.

Without a deadline, the people might delay their registration and cause a last-minute rush, he said.

"We need to make good planning so that we know how many doses we need to buy for everyone,” he said when met after a Malaysia Prihatin programme here today.

He was asked to comment on Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s recent statement that the government was considering a deadline for Covid-19 vaccine registration to achieve its target of vaccinating 80 per cent of the population for herd immunity.

Muhiyddin said that registrations through the MySejahtera application were now only about six million, a figure relatively low compared to the country’s population of over 30 million who are eligible for the immunisation programme.

Aaron said the government was targeting to get 27 million to 30 million of the country’s population including non-citizens to be vaccinated as soon as possible.

As for Sarawak, Aaron said the vaccination needs to be done for its more than two million population before the state election, which is expected to be held any time after August. — Bernama