With its frontliners exhausted and hospitals buckling under the weight of cases, the only way Malaysia can cope with the Covid-19 pandemic is to achieve the target of vaccinating 80 per cent of the population as soon as possible
On the first day of Malaysia’s full lockdown (FMCO), Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin released a video statement to address a certain number of issues surrounding the National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme, which is currently in phase two, prioritising the elderly, those with morbidity problems, and the disabled.
Read more: Covid-19: Malaysia Goes Into Full Lockdown (FMCO) From June 1, 2021
“We all know lockdowns are costly for the economy. Although we have no choice but to implement the MCO now, we cannot continue to do so in the future. Millions more will lose their jobs and livelihoods. That is why we need to vaccinate everyone at a faster rate,” Khairy, who is also the Coordinating Minister for the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme, said.
In the video update, Khairy outlined how the Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force is aiming to accelerate the rate of Covid-19 vaccinations in the country.
Types of vaccines
The delivery schedule for the vaccines has been renegotiated so that the vaccines will arrive faster. Twelve million doses of the Sinovac vaccine are scheduled to arrive by the end of July while 25 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine will arrive in the third quarter of 2021.
See also: The 5 Covid-19 Vaccines In Malaysia's National Vaccination Programme
Malaysia’s National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Division (NPRA) is also currently evaluating the CanSino single-dose Covid-19 vaccine. Earlier, it was reported that Malaysia will receive a supply of 3.5 million doses of the CanSino Covid-19 vaccine from China in stages, starting from April.