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KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia on Tuesday (March 2) granted conditional approval for the use of vaccines made by British firm AstraZeneca and Chinese firm Sinovac, just days after launching its national COVID-19 inoculation program.
Malaysia kicked off its vaccination campaign on February 24 with an injection developed by US drugmaker Pfizer and German partner BioNTech, as it tries to curb a surge in infections and help jump-start an economy that saw its worst decline in more than two decades. last year.
Conditional approval means Malaysia will use the vaccines developed by Astrazeneca and Sinovac, but both companies, together with Pfizer, will need to provide additional data on ongoing submissions to ensure the effectiveness and safety of the vaccines, said Chief Health Officer Noor Hisham Abdullah. . in a sentence.
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Health authorities are also evaluating the COVID-19 vaccine produced by Russia’s Gamaleya Research Institute and the local bottling plant for the Sinovac vaccine, Noor Hisham said.
Sinovac signed an agreement with Pharmaniaga of Malaysia, which will carry out a filling and finishing process for the distribution of the vaccine in Malaysia, before manufacturing it locally.
Malaysia aims to vaccinate at least 80 percent of its population of some 32 million by February next year.
Last month, the government said it had secured 66.7 million doses of vaccines, enough to more than cover its population.
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