KUALA NERUS – The government is still studying the mix-and-match method using the Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines.
National immunisation drive coordinating minister Khairy Jamaluddin said the matter was tabled to the Covid-19 Vaccine Supply Access Guarantee Special Committee (JKJAV) two weeks ago, but no final decision has been made.
“The mixing of vaccine doses (using different brands for the first and second shots) is still being studied. We have tabled it to JKJAV, but the matter has not yet been finalised by our technical committee,” he told reporters here today.
At a webinar hosted by the Oxford and Cambridge Society of Malaysia yesterday, Khairy was reported as saying data received from Germany on heterological vaccinations using AstraZeneca as the first dose and Pfizer as the second shows that the combination is more effective at protecting against Covid-19 variants.
The science, technology and innovation minister said Terengganu will get over 200,000 vaccine doses from next month, allowing the state to administer 12,000 shots daily.
State Health Department director Dr Nor Azimi Yunus previously said 5,380 doses are being administered each day at 14 vaccination centres statewide. – Bernama, June 17, 2021
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