KUALA LUMPUR, April 19 — Malaysia is receiving about 2.25 million coronavirus vaccine doses this month and in May, Vaccine Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said today.
Khairy, during a joint Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF) press conference, said that this week, Malaysia will be receiving three more shipments of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine — 128,700 doses on April 21, then 36,270 doses on April 22, and 12,870 doses on April 23.
“As mentioned last week, the total supply of Pfizer that we will be receiving for April is 712,530 doses,” Khairy said.
Meanwhile, for the month of May, 1,038,960 doses of the Pfizer vaccine and 500,000 doses of the finished Sinovac vaccine will be sent to Malaysia.
“The supply will be sent in batches on a weekly basis.”
Currently, 37.1 per cent of the 18 and above population nationwide have registered for Covid-19 vaccination, or some 8.99 million adults. The second phase of the national Covid-19 vaccination programme for vulnerable groups kicked off today.
Khairy also said that local biopharmaceutical company Pharmaniaga Bhd has 1,800 litres of the bulk form of China’s Sinovac vaccine, which can produce up to 2.6 million doses.
“However, this supply from Pharmaniaga is still pending approval from the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA), product validation for the fill-and-finish facility,” Khairy added.
Khairy previously explained that Malaysia’s Covid-19 vaccination rate is based on the current supply and that Malaysia will only be able to get enough supply for 80 per cent of the population by October. He also said that vaccine supply will match demand from June onwards.
