KUALA LUMPUR, June 16 — The Health Ministry (MOH) has granted conditional approval for emergency use of the single-dose Covid-19 vaccines manufactured by China’s CanSino Biologics and US drugmaker Johnson & Johnson.
The ministry in a statement yesterday said the Johnson & Johnson’s vaccines would be obtained via the global Covax facility backed by the World Health Organization. It did not say how many doses it would procure via Covax.
The Federal government has said previously it had secured 3.5 million doses of CanSino’s shot, though it has yet to receive any shipments of the vaccine.
The MOH has also approved the use of the vaccine made by US and German drugmakers Pfizer and BioNTech for recipients aged 12 and above, although priority would still be given to those in high-risk groups, it said.
Malaysia has secured a total of 79.5 million vaccines, enough to cover nearly 125 per cent of its population, including those manufactured by Britain’s AstraZeneca and Chinese firm Sinovac.
It expects about 1.3 million Pfizer-BioNTech doses to arrive this month and in early July, although another 2.2 million AstraZeneca doses are expected to be delayed following supply issues at the firm’s Thai manufacturing plant.
A total of 3.28 million people, about 10 per cent of the population, have received at least one dose as of Monday, government records show.
Daily coronavirus infections and deaths rose to record levels in May, although cases have dipped in recent days.
Malaysia reported 5,419 new cases on Tuesday, bringing total infections to 667,876. Deaths totalled 3,968 as of Monday.
— Reuters
