Registration for jabs to stay open until target reached, says minister

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SEPANG: The registration for Covid-19 vaccination, to commence this March 1, would remain open until it has reached the target of 80 per cent of the population having received the vaccine, said Coordinating Minister for the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme, Khairy Jamaluddin.

“Registration will remain open until we reach our target of 70 to 80 per cent of Malaysians (having received the vaccine),” said Khairy, who is also the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation.

He said this at a press conference after witnessing the arrival of the first batch of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine here yesterday.

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah was previously reported to have said that the Ministry of Health (MoH) had identified several methods that the public could use to register, and it would also identify target groups to ensure they received the vaccination.

Meanwhile, on the status of other vaccine candidates that would be accepted by Malaysia, Khairy said the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA) had been doing its best in obtaining additional information on the vaccine before it was given approval.

“NPRA, for instance, for the Sputnik V vaccine, have asked additional information from Duopharma Biotech Bhd and Russia’s Gamaleya National Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology.

“I can assure you that NPRA is doing their best to expedite the regulatory approval process for the other vaccine candidates,” he said.

Khairy said the Sinovac vaccine was scheduled to arrive this Feb 27, but still awaiting NPRA approval; while the delivery schedule for the AstraZeneca vaccine would be received this March.

As at February this year, Malaysia had had access to a supply of 66.7 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine through the COVAX Facility and early purchases from five Covid-19 vaccine manufacturers.

It includes two-dose vaccines including from Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca, Sinovac Life Sciences Co Ltd (Sinovac) and CanSinoBIO, while the one-dose vaccines are from Sputnik V.

In the meantime, the government would also sign the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine procurement contract from the United States in the near future. — Bernama