KUALA LUMPUR: The government has set a target of immunising 70 per cent of the population by the first quarter of 2022.
To achieve this, Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the public must be well informed of the efficacies and efficiencies of the Covid-19 vaccines that would be used in Malaysia.
He stressed that there was no need for the public to be choosy over the type of vaccine as all vaccines procured by the government were safe.
"For now, we know that vaccines are the short term solution to preventing Covid-19. With the vaccines, we can prevent the disease in the short term, but for the long term, it needs to be studied further perhaps for another two to three years.
"At least, we (those inoculated) will be protected from the disease for the next three to six months," he said this during a Covid-19 State of Emergency engagement session organised by the Health Ministry with the media today.
Dr Kalaiarasu Peariasamy, director of the Institute for Clinical Research at National Institutes for Health, said the approved vaccines had demonstrated an efficacy of over 50 per cent, the minimum requirement set by the World Health Organisation's (WHO).
"Efficacy is the trial outcome (where a vaccinated group is compared with an unvaccinated group). For example, if you have 200 volunteers where half of them received Covid-19 vaccines and the outcome shows a 62 per cent efficacy, it does not mean the vaccine is ineffective or bad.
"It (efficacy) means reduction of the disease's severity or the symptoms in that trial. But when you roll the vaccine out to the public, then it becomes effective in containing the disease.
"This is the preventive part where you vaccinate people and as more people receive the vaccine, the less likely they are to get the disease, therefore achieving herd immunity.
"In the meantime, it is not advisable to choose a certain vaccine over the other as the minimum level of efficacy is 50 per cent which is applicable to all Covid-19 vaccines that have been approved for use."
Dr Kalaiarasu stressed that vaccine was perhaps the only safer way to build immunity rather than exposing people to get sick.
Israeli researchers, he said, estimated that the infection rate in vaccinated citizens was already 30 per cent to 60 per cent lower than unvaccinated people.
Dr Kalaiarasu also denied that former Covid-19 patients would not require vaccination and said they were still at risk of being reinfected.
"There are claims that those who had Covid-19 are immune to the disease. This is not true. The current data shows that immunity may only last about eight months and not beyond that."
Deputy Health director-general (Research and Technical Support) Datuk Dr Hishamshah Mohd Ibrahim said the patients' antibodies who were infected at a low level might have immunity that lasts for less than eight months.
"If they are category 1 and 2 patients, their reaction and immunity are less than those who were critical.
"This is why vaccines are needed to streamline the reaction against Covid-19," he said.
Meanwhile, Dr Noor Hisham said Malaysians, including those who had been inoculated should continue adhering to the standard operating procedures (SOP) in place as the risk of spreading the virus would still be there.
This, he said, was because there would still be a large number of people who have not been inoculated.
"We need to practise both public health measures as well as vaccination. Then it will be completed, and you can protect yourself and your family from Covid-19 infection.
"We do not have strong evidence to show that once you are vaccinated, you are free to go back to your old life.
"We need to learn to live with the virus, complying with the SOP and vaccination," he added.