The Malaysian government aims to vaccinate 6.4 million people against the coronavirus early 2021, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said, announcing a deal to buy 12.8 million doses of the vaccine made by Pfizer and BioNTech.
“Vaccination will be conducted in phases and will prioritise high-risk groups who are more susceptible to COVID-19,” Muhyiddin said on Friday.
Health and medical workers would be vaccinated first, Khairy Jamaluddin, Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation, wrote on Twitter.
“Then we will prioritise high-risk groups [elderly, those with co-morbidity], followed by [the] general population,” the minister tweeted.
The Pfizer/BioNTech deal and a separate arrangement with the vaccine distribution alliance Covax would provide Malaysia with sufficient doses to vaccinate 30 per cent of the country’s 32 million people early 2021, Khairy said.
Khairy added the government also aims to deploy Chinese-made vaccines and would target attaining “herd immunity” by eventually vaccinating 70 per cent of the population.
Pfizer and BioNTech said earlier this month that their vaccine is 95 per cent effective, and have applied for emergency approval at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Malaysian authorities would also have to approve the vaccine before it is distributed there.
Malaysia has officially reported almost 62,000 cases of the virus.
More than 50,000 people are listed as recovered, while 350 people have died after testing positive.
