Eight million doses of Covid-19 shots to expire in six months: Dr Zaliha

KUALA LUMPUR – Tens of millions of ringgit worth of Covid-19 vaccines could potentially go to waste by September due to expiration. 

This is based on Health Minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa’s parliamentary reply dated yesterday, which revealed that a total of 8.63 million doses of vaccines of various brands will expire within the next six months.

Her revelation is particularly concerning considering the low take-up rate of booster shots of late.

According to Dr Zaliha, while 84.3% (27.54 million) of the Malaysian population had received their complete primer doses, only 50% (16.32 million) had gotten their first booster dose.

The figure is even more concerning considering how many have completed their second boosters, which stands at a paltry 2.5% (815,671) of the population.

Providing a breakdown of the remaining vaccine stock, Dr Zaliha noted that 2.59 million doses of Pfizer (Comirnaty) have an expiry date of between February and April, while 244,262 doses of Pfizer Paeds meant for children expire between February and June.

For Sinovac vaccines, she pointed out that 1.16 million doses will expire between this month and July, while another one million doses previously donated by China will be obsolete in September.

As for the Cansino brand, Dr Zaliha said 144,978 doses expired last month, while 2.1 million and 900,000 more doses will expire in March and April respectively.

A further 499,970 doses of Sinopharm vaccine doses donated by the United Arab Emirates will expire in September.

“These existing vaccine supplies will be used to continue the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK), particularly for booster shots,” she said today.

In a previous parliamentary reply, Dr Zaliha noted that 2,796,638 vaccine doses stored at the Health Ministry and Covid-19 storage facilities have expired as of February 28.

PICK was rolled out by the previous government in February 2021 amid a spike in Covid-19 infections.

It was reported previously that billions of ringgit have been allocated for the procurement of the vaccines of various makes.

However, the government has not revealed the cost of each vaccine dose, citing non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) inked with the vaccine manufacturers.

On Tuesday, former Public Account Committee chairman Wong Kah Woh expressed his disappointment at the Health Ministry’s refusal to divulge details of the losses incurred by the government as a result of expired vaccines.

The Taiping MP also accused the ministry of hiding behind NDAs to protect itself. – The Vibes, March 23, 2023