Malaysia’s COVID vaccination programme expected to be completed end of 2021 or early 2022

COVID-19 cases and figures 12-25 January (Twitter)

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s Health Ministry plans to complete the COVID-19 vaccination programme in the country by the end of 2021 or early next year.

Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the vaccination programme would involve three phases with the first phase expected to start in March involving half a million vaccines for frontline workers.

“We hope to receive the first vaccine at the end of next month. We expect the (first phase) of vaccinations to be from March to May with the second dose being administered 21 days after receiving the first dose,” he said.

“The second phase is for vulnerable groups involving those aged 60 and above and those with infectious and non-communicable diseases. The third phase will be given to all 17 million Malaysians, especially to those who are working. So, we hope to complete the vaccination by the end of this year or early next year. This is our plan to end or to break the Covid-19 infection chain in our country,” he said, quoted by Malaysia’s news agency Bernama.

So far, the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Division under the MOH has only given conditional approval to the COVID-19 vaccine produced by pharmaceutical company Pfizer, he added.

The conditional approval was given after looking at the third phase of clinical trials including the side effects of the vaccine.

Any vaccine has side effects such as fever, redness and so on following the body’s response to the vaccine, he said.

COVID-19 cases and figures 12-25 January (Twitter)

According to Bernama, Dr Noor Hisham said Malaysia had the advantage in terms of time, between three and four months, to see the effectiveness of the vaccine in countries that have carried out the vaccination programme earlier.

“This may be to our advantage as we have four months to watch the implementation of the vaccination programme in other countries, for example in the United States and the United Kingdom. The side effects are low. Many of my friends there have received the vaccine.

“So far Alhamdulillah, with the Pfizer vaccine there are no related side effects. (If) there is a possibility of death or other side effects it may not be related to the vaccine. This is what we have to see, whether (death) is caused by the vaccine or is a ‘coincidence’ related to other diseases,” he said.

Malaysia will continue monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of the vaccine in the near and long term, he said.