Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on August 16, 2021 - August 22, 2021

VACCINE DEVELOPMENTS

Half of the population in Malaysia have received at least one dose of the vaccine while 40.7% of the adult population have received both doses since the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme commenced on Feb 24, says The Special Committee on Covid-19 Vaccine Supply.

Pharmaniaga Bhd will supply an additional six million doses of the Sinovac vaccine. The supply will start immediately and must be completed by end-August. This will bring the total accumulated supply of the Sinovac vaccine by Pharmaniaga for the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme to 20.4 million doses.

Vaccinations for adolescents aged 12 to 17 will soon begin under the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme, starting with those with underlying medical conditions.

The government will announce the action that will be taken against anti-vaccine groups by end-September, to ensure that the country can achieve herd immunity to curb the spread of Covid-19. The possibility of making vaccination compulsory has not been ruled out.

The Ministry of Health has discovered the sale of vaccination certificates in the form of physical cards on an online platform and plans to take action against the party involved.

The FDA has authorised Covid-19 vaccine booster shots of Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines for people with weakened immune system. Next, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory committee will also need to provide its approval.

China’s drug regulator has approved the country’s first mixed-vaccine trial, owing to concerns about the efficacy of domestically produced vaccines amid the rapid spread of the Delta variant. The trial will test the efficacy of combining China’s Sinovac vaccine with that from Inovio of the US.

 

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