KUALA LUMPUR – The Covid-19 vaccination exercise for students above the age of 18 seeking to undertake their tertiary studies overseas has been initiated, said Khairy Jamaluddin.
The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme coordinating minister told a joint press conference with Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba today that those who will turn 18 this year need their parents or guardians to sign off on this.
He said vaccines will be given to teachers, bus drivers and teenagers with comorbidities when schools resume in-person classes.
Dr Adham said vaccination for teens is still being studied pending the collection of more data.
He said this follows the results of an ongoing clinical trial using a lower dosage of the Pfizer vaccine on children.
There is evidence emerging of post-vaccination myocarditis, indicating an association with mRNA-based jabs, he added.
“The option of using inactivated vaccines should be considered for adolescents once the safety and efficacy data for this age group is available.”
He said the Covid-19 Vaccine Candidate Selection Committee recommended that a system be set up to monitor heart inflammation among those who received mRNA vaccines, as well as proposed the reopening of schools.
Khairy said vaccination priority for adolescents will be given to those continuing their studies abroad.
“We are considering vaccinating healthy adolescents after vaccinations for adults are completed.
“The technical committee has been asked to monitor students going to study abroad, to see whether we will vaccinate them with Pfizer or Sinovac. But for now, the priority goes to healthy adolescents who are going abroad to study.”
He said the government will vaccinate only those who turn 18 this year, adding that more than 8,000 students headed overseas are scheduled to be immunised.
Khairy announced that Malaysia will receive 5.42 million doses of the Pfizer jab this month on top of the one million that arrived from the United States today.
Another 586,700 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine and the remainder of 12 million Sinovac jabs will also be delivered in July, alongside a donation of 500,000 Sinovac doses from China. – The Vibes, July 5, 2021
