Kuala Lumpur, Feb 24 (IANS): Malaysia on Wednesday launched the nationwide Covid-19 vaccination programme with Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin being the first person to get the jab.

Muhyiddin received the vaccine shot on live television in a bid to build confidence around the vaccine among the public, Xinhua reported.

He was joined by Health Ministry Director General Noor Hisham Abdullah and four frontline workers, who also received their vaccine shots.

This would be Malaysia's largest vaccination programme ever, aiming to inoculate at least 80 per cent of the country's total population to achieve protection against Covid-19, which has infected more than 2,80,000 people and caused more than 1,000 deaths in the country so far.

The vaccination would be conducted in three phases: Phase-1 for the frontline workers covering nearly half-a-million people, Phase-2 for high-risk groups and Phase-3 for all adults aged 18 and above with the whole exercise expected to be completed by February next year.

Malaysia received its first shipment of Covid-19 vaccines on Sunday, which were jointly developed by US pharmaceutical firm Pfizer Inc. and its German partner BioNTech SE.

Malaysia has secured vaccines from several suppliers. The Science, Technology and Innovation Minister, Khairy Jamaluddin, said the first batch of vaccines developed by Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac are set to arrive on February 27.