This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on July 19, 2021 - July 25, 2021

The World Bank says global growth could increase by “several percentage points” and see benefits “in trillions” if advanced economies release their extra vaccines to help accelerate vaccination in developing countries, whose reopening has stalled due to the lack of vaccines.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a new warning for the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine, saying it has been linked to a serious but rare side effect called Guillain-Barré syndrome, in which the immune system attacks the nerves.

Malaysia’s Ministry of Health has decided to stop using the Covid-19 vaccine produced by China-based Sinovac Biotech Ltd once supply ends, as it has sufficient doses of other vaccines for its immunisation programme. Moving forward, the vaccination drive will be anchored by the Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccine. The country has secured about 45 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which is sufficient to cover 70% of the population.

Vietnam will offer the vaccine jointly developed by Pfizer and BioNTech as a second dose option for people first inoculated with the AstraZeneca vaccine. Vietnam joins countries like Canada, Spain and South Korea that have already approved such dose-mixing.

The government will soon allow those aged 60 and above in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur who have yet to receive their Covid-19 vaccination to walk into any vaccination centre without an appointment for their jab.

Malaysia has granted conditional registration approval for the use of Covid-19 vaccines produced by Sinopharm and Johnson & Johnson to curb the spread of the pandemic, according to Ministry of Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

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