Covid-19 Vaccination Uptake Among Remote Communities in Malaysia: A Cross-sectional Study

Abstract

Intro: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a novel coronavirus responsible for highly contagious respiratory infectious disease causing a pandemic in 2020. It used angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor for permitting their entry into the human cells. Initially, COVID-19 was managed through secondary and tertiary prevention. Many countries began to implement lockdown and vaccination programmes after developing vaccines. Most COVID-19 vaccines aim to prevent uptake via the human ACE2 receptor by inducing neutralising antibodies against the viral spike (S) protein. Malaysia implemented the National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) in February 2021, involving the government and society to vaccinate 80% of the population. The study aims to determine the uptake of COVID-19 vaccination among remote communities in Malaysia and its associated factors. Method: It is a cross-sectional study conducted in two phases between September 2021 and April 2023 among the remote communities in Malaysia, with 1005 respondents. A two-stage stratified random sampling method was applied to collect data from heads of households (HHs) in each enumeration block given by the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM). Data were analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 28. Result: The result revealed that 99% of remote communities were willing to receive COVID-19 vaccination. 99% of the participants had received the first dose of vaccination, while 92% had completed a series of vaccinations. Factors associated with vaccination uptake among remote communities were state location (2.01[1.62-2.80]), age (1.04[1.01-1.07]), and main transport to the workplace (0.45[0.26-0.78]). Conclusion: Malaysia is more willing to take vaccination than Asian and European countries. Vaccination uptake among the remote communities in Malaysia is also higher than Thailand, Western Australia and South Africa. The contributing factors for the vaccination uptake and willingness were Whole-of-Government and Whole-of-Society approaches, no-cost for the vaccination to all residing in Malaysia, regardless of citizenship status and public area restriction if they did not have two doses of vaccination in their MySejahteraapplication.