KUCHING: Those inoculated with the Sinovac vaccine accounted for the highest number of Covid-19 deaths, according to a data released by the Health Ministry.
An analysis of the data showed that Sinovac vaccine recipients accounted for 710 or 77 percent of the 922 deaths reported as of Sept 6.
This is despite Sinovac vaccine recipients being accounted for only 51.5 percent of fully vaccinated people during the period, including the two-week period after the second dose.
Another 206 deaths or 22.3 percent of the total deaths reported during the period were Pfizer vaccine recipients. During the period under review, Pfizer vaccine accounted for 43.6 percent of the fully vaccinated population in the country.
In other words, there are 10.11 vaccine breakthrough deaths for every 100,000 people fully vaccinated with the Sinovac vaccine, and 3.47 per 100,000 for Pfizer recipients, reported news portal Malaysiakini.
Malaysiakini said the difference was even starker when looking at the 33 cases involving people below 60 with no history of chronic illness.
Of these, only three (nine percent) had the Pfizer vaccine while the remaining 30 (90.9 percent) took the Sinovac vaccine.
Irrespective of the finding, it is still unclear whether the differences are due to the vaccine effectiveness, or because the population that received the Sinovac vaccine somehow was more exposed to the disease.
Based on the Health Ministry’s dataset, the death toll due to Covid-19 as at Sept 6, stood at 18,802.
These deaths of the fully vaccinated, that occurred between June 7 and Sept 6, were mainly senior citizens, accounting for more than 80 percent.
The statistics proved that although all Covid-19 vaccines approved in Malaysia are highly effective in preventing deaths caused by the disease, they do not eliminate completely such an outcome.
Prior to the first vaccine breakthrough, a total of 10,211 deaths were reported among unvaccinated people.
The figure is said to be 11 times higher than all Covid-19 vaccine breakthrough deaths combined.
