PETALING JAYA: Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin has announced that the government signed an agreement with pharmaceutical company Pfizer on Nov 24 to procure 12.8 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine.
According to a NST report, Muhyiddin said one million doses would be delivered in the first quarter of next year, followed by 1.7 million, 5.8 million and 4.3 million doses in the second, third and fourth quarters of 2021 respectively.
The government will use this to immunise a total of 6.4 million Malaysians free of charge, but foreigners must pay a fee to be determined by the health ministry.
“Vaccination will be conducted in phases and will prioritise high-risk groups who are more susceptible to Covid-19,” said Muhyiddin, adding that this included frontliners, the elderly and patients with non-communicable diseases.
However, he said the company still required approval from the United States’ Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA) before it could be used in Malaysia.
Muhyiddin added that the health ministry also signed an agreement with the Covax Facility to obtain Covid-19 vaccines for another 10% of the Malaysian population.
He said the ministry was preparing to begin phase three vaccine clinical research in collaboration with China, in which a vaccine was being developed under the Medical Biology Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (IMBCAMS) there.
“The government also gives its assurance to all Malaysians that the vaccines used in Malaysia will meet the strict conditions set by the NPRA,” he said. “We will never compromise on this.”
In a tweet, Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said the first one million doses would be used to vaccinate 500,000 frontliners, followed by those categorised as high-risk groups and then the general population.
“With the Covax facility and Pfizer deal, we now have doses for 30% of our population.
“Health Minister Dr Adham Baba and I are working hard to close further deals to secure doses for up to 70% of our population,” said Khairy.
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