KUALA LUMPUR, May 4 — The dosing interval for AstraZeneca-Oxford’s two-dose Covid-19 vaccine has been set for 12 weeks in Malaysia, Vaccine Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said today.
“Dosing interval for the AstraZeneca vaccine in the opt-in programme is set at 12 weeks,” Khairy tweeted earlier.
“This is in line with WHO’s (World Health Organization) recommendations and is current practice in (the) UK.”
The Covid-19 Vaccine Supply Access Committee (JKJAV) has allowed members of the public residing in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur to voluntarily register for the AstraZeneca vaccine as a parallel programme to the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK), amid vaccine hesitancy surrounding the AstraZeneca vaccine.
A study involving 17,000 participants published in The Lancet journal in February showed that the AstraZeneca vaccine offered 76 per cent protection even after the first dose, and an 81 per cent efficacy rate when the second dose was administered 12 weeks apart.
Covid-19 Vaccine Coordinating Minister Khairy also said that JKJAV will review applications for shorter dosage intervals on a case by case basis, such as for those who are going abroad.
The opt-in programme for the AstraZeneca vaccine will begin tomorrow for 268,600 registered individuals. A total of 1.1 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine will be shipped to Malaysia 610,000 doses in June, 410,000 doses in July, and 1.2 million doses between August and September.
