PUTRAJAYA – The Health Ministry is studying whether the time interval for the second AstraZeneca vaccine dose can be shortened from 12 weeks to six weeks, Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba said.
He said this would depend on expert reports on the Covid-19 situation in the country, whether the vaccine recipients require maximum protection from the second dose more quickly.
“We still have to conduct continuous genome sequencing activity to detect if there is a new, more violent Covid-19 variant that could affect the efficacy of the AstraZeneca vaccine. The decision will be made by the JKJAV (Covid-19 Vaccine Supply Access Guarantee Special Committee) if the second dose must be given sooner,” he said in a news conference at his office here, today.
Currently, the recommended interval for the AstraZeneca vaccine is between 4 and 12 weeks.
Meanwhile, he said the government would study reports from Australian health authorities after the country stopped administering the AstraZeneca vaccine to individuals aged below 60, following blood clot concerns among that age group.
Dr Adham said this ahead of arrivals of AstraZeneca doses produced by suppliers from Thailand, which would arrive next month.
“Our experts will re-evaluate whether the AstraZeneca vaccine is suitable for those aged 60 and below,” he said.
Malaysia has procured AstraZeneca shots through the Covax facility and directly from manufacturers.
Dr Adham said so far, the overall data showed that the AstraZeneca vaccine did not cause serious harm to recipients in Malaysia.
Extending the interval between doses increases the number of first shots among the population and has been implemented by countries such as the United Kingdom and Germany.
In a related development, Dr Adham said the government was implementing the ‘vaccinate first, register later’ method for those who are having difficulties signing up, especially in rural areas.
This was done by activating the mobile team to track down target groups that were supposed to get the vaccine in the second phase of the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme.
“We are targeting to inoculate 9.4 million people in the second phase but so far, only 4.4 million have registered via the MySejahtera application. So, we are going all out to deploy the team to cover all recipients, before we can proceed with the third phase,” he said.
The second phase of the immunisation programme focuses on senior citizens, persons with disabilities and those with chronic illnesses.
Meanwhile, Dr Adham said those who have been vaccinated must continue to follow public health advice so that the risk of infection could be contained effectively.
“There is still a probability for those who have been vaccinated to be infected with Covid-19 as the virus has been in the community. We need to continue practising new norms such as wearing masks, washing hands frequently, observing physical distancing and avoiding crowded places and direct contact with others,” he said.
He added that Covid-19 vaccination serves to protect recipients from getting serious adverse effects of infection, hence, the government through the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA) would ensure that whatever vaccines that are being used have been confirmed safe, effective and of high quality.
Dr Adham said the government was in the midst of formulating a strategy to inoculate individuals aged between 12 and 17, totalling 3.5 million people, following the approval to administer the Comirnaty vaccine produced by Pfizer-BioNTech to the group. – Bernama, June 19, 2021
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