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Bangkok, Dec 19 (efe-epa) .- Malaysian authorities said on Saturday they expected to receive the country’s first batch of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines in February, state news agency Bernama reported.
The Asian country has orders for 12.8 million doses of the jab so far, enough to cover 6.4 million people, approximately 20% of the total population.
The first million of those vaccines will arrive in the country in the first quarter of 2021, and the rest will be delivered in stages throughout the year.
Malaysian authorities added that they expected to sign a purchase agreement with the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca on Monday with the aim of securing enough vaccines to protect another 20% of the population.
Another 10% should receive the vaccine thanks to the country’s agreement with COVAX, the vaccination program of the World Health Organization.
In total, the three agreements should provide sufficient coverage for half of the country’s population. Experts said the goal should be to vaccinate at least 70%.
More than 90,000 people have been infected by Covid-19 in Malaysia and more than 430 have died since the outbreak reached the Southeast Asian nation.
The United Nations has warned that the world’s poorest regions could be left behind in the global launch of vaccines. EFE-EPA
grc / jt
