PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia will no longer adopt the previous “one dose, one dose reserve” policy to speed up the vaccination process under the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme, according to Khairy Jamaluddin, the coordinating minister for the immunisation programme.
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He said existing vaccine doses would be fully used as the government was satisfied with the Pfizer-BioNTech manufacturer’s delivery schedule.
He said it would enable Phase 1 of the immunisation exercise to be completed ahead of schedule.
“As of this week, we have lifted the policy of ‘one dose, one reserve” and we roll the doses and don’t have to wait for new delivery in order to release the doses.
“With that, we are able to finish Phase 1 earlier and can start Phase 2 earlier as well. The vaccination rate at present can go as high as 20,000 a day based on delivery of the vaccine,” he said at a media briefing today.
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Khairy said he would hold a meeting with health minister Dr Adham Baba to determine the date for Phase 2 of the immunisation programme, which would be announced next week.
Phase 2 from April to August will involve a total of 9.4 million people such as senior citizens aged 65 and above, high-risk groups as well as disabled people.
A total of 428,710 people had been vaccinated under Phase 1 of the national immunisation exercise, from February to April, dedicated to frontline workers involving 500,000 people.
Citizens and non-citizens aged 18 and above will receive the vaccine in Phase 3, expected to start in May until February next year, involving 13.7 million people.- FMT