KUALA LUMPUR – The government will decide on whether Malaysia will use the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine or not at the Covid-19 Vaccine Supply Access Guarantee Special Committee (JKJAV) meeting in two weeks.
National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme Coordinating Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said during the meeting, the government will scrutinise any additional information to be tabled by the panel of experts from the Health Ministry (MoH) before coming to a decision.
He said the government is taking note of a European Medicines Agency (EMA) report that confirmed a link between the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine and cases of a rare blood clot.
“In this case, before the announcement (by EMA), our stance is, as stated by the Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba two days ago, that we will proceed with the AstraZeneca vaccine.
“However, I think the safest approach is to refer back to JKJAV based on the recent information that we have obtained from the EMA,” he told reporters after the launch of the CHAMPS-NASOM Autism Awareness Campaign 2021 here today.
On April 7, EMA’s safety committee concluded that unusual blood clots with low blood platelets should be listed as very rare side effects of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
However, Khairy, who is also science, technology and innovation minister, urged the public not to be worried about any reports pertaining to the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is scheduled to arrive next month, as the JKJAV has enough time to decide on whether to use the vaccine or not.
On a proposal to issue Covid-19 vaccine passports to individuals who have received the jab, Khairy said the document should contain the details of the vaccination and screening test within 72 hours before a trip, for reference.
“As announced by Qatar, they will only let people in without quarantine if there is proof of vaccination and screening test. We have not made any decision... if we decided to give some (travel) relaxation to those who have been vaccinated, they have to have some proof,” he said.
In a related development, Khairy said the government plans to give Orang Asli the complete Covid-19 vaccine in just one shot as as to ease the management of vaccinators and avoid having the Orang Asli community make multiple trips to get the shots.
He said so far, there are only two types of single-shot vaccines that have undergone the third phase of the clinical study, namely CanSino, which is now under the registration process with the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA), as well as the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) vaccine.
“If we want to purchase J&J, it can only be delivered in the fourth quarter of the year. In comparison, I think CanSino is earlier and if the registration is approved, we can use it in rural areas.” – Bernama, April 9, 2021
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