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KLUANG (Bernama): The government will enter into an agreement with the UK’s AstraZeneca on Monday (December 21) to purchase Covid-19 vaccines to meet the immunization needs of 20% of Malaysia’s population.
Minister of Health Datuk Seri Dr. Adham Baba (Photo) He said this is the third agreement after the government signed with Covax to buy 10% of its vaccine needs and with Pfizer to cover 20% of Malaysia’s needs last month.
“In general, we will buy vaccines for 50% of people. We will try to get all the vaccine supplies in the first quarter of next year,” he said after a symbolic delivery of a contribution from the Aerosol Intubation Box by Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. (UTM) to the Ministry of Health in Simpang Renggam near here on Saturday (December 19).
Also present was the Deputy Vice Chancellor of the UTM (research and innovation) Prof Datuk Dr. Ahmad Fauzi Ismail.
Dr Adham said that at the same time, the government has to increase the purchase of another 20% of the vaccine to meet the needs of 70% of the population.
He said the government would seek to attract vaccine suppliers to meet the country’s needs.
“The important thing is that companies that give rapid access to their vaccines must ensure that they are safe and of quality. They must also receive approval from the producing country and approval from the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA) of the Ministry of Health.
“If it is concluded, we can vaccinate the first Malaysians who make up the vanguard in early 2021,” he said.
Media reported on Saturday that the first batch of vaccines would arrive in February 2021 and supplies would continue until the end of 2021.
On November 24, Malaysia announced that it would purchase its initial supply of 12.8 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer to meet 20% of its immunization needs or 6.4 million people for free. – Bernama
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