KUALA LUMPUR, May 5 ― Market research firm Ipsos Malaysia today said that Malaysians are among the top global citizens who are in support of “vaccine passports” and believe that having it will make travel and large events “safe”.
Its managing director Arun Menon said that according to its recent findings, Malaysians are consistently on the top among the 25 countries surveyed in supporting vaccine passports or similar health certificates that will allow access into a country and its public venues.
“As we crossed one year of living with Covid-19, the Malaysian public is looking for ways in which they can get back to normal, even if that requires carrying or mandating vaccine passports or similar health certificates.
“Countries across the world are progressing through their vaccination phases. However, some are still facing larger surges or second/third waves of the pandemic. The Malaysian public widely supports requirement of vaccine certificates to enter the country and access large venues, but is divided on their use to access to shops, restaurants, and offices,” he said in a statement.
Malaysians believe the vaccine passport will be widely used by the end of the year.
According to the findings, Japan, the host country of 2021 Olympics, and United States, who has rolled out vaccination program efficiently, are not as optimistic as Malaysia.
Some 78 per cent of respondents in Malaysia said that vaccine passports will be used by end of the year, while in countries like Japan, only 43 per cent agree while only 56 per cent in the United States of America agreed.
In Malaysia, 92 per cent of respondents agree that the vaccine passports should be used to allow entry into a country. The number is high in comparison to the global average of 78 per cent.
Similarly, 82 per cent of Malaysian respondents believe that the vaccine passports be used to allow access into larger public venues while 69 per cent say it can be used for shops and offices.
The global average is 67 and 55 per cent respectively.
Malaysia has so far fully vaccinated some 1.5 million of its population, out of more than 32 million people.
