KUALA LUMPUR: The government is looking into the possibility of including teenagers as part of the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (NIP), said Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin.
Khairy said this, however, would depend on the clinical trials for the Covid-19 vaccines by two pharmaceutical companies to be administered to teenagers.
"Pfizer and AstraZeneca are conducting clinical trials on those aged between 12 and 16. If it is approved, we may need an additional stock of Covid-19 vaccines to be given to teenagers as well, who are unlisted as part of the NIP for now," he said during a weekly NIP virtual press conference today.
The on-going NIP is divided into three phases, with the first seeing frontliners from health and non-health sectors receiving their immunisation, the second for senior citizens, the disabled and vulnerable groups and third phase for those aged 18 and above.
Khairy added that Malaysia has agreements to procure Covid-19 vaccine supplies of up to 106 per cent which is more than needed to vaccinate the nation's population including foreigners, as a measure to mitigate uncertainties.
He said this was because not all vaccines have received approvals from the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency and the Health Ministry, adding that the only ones that had gotten the greenlight so far are the Pfizer-BioNTech, Sinovac and Astrazeneca vaccines.
"The others we have bought such as Sputnik V and CanSinoBio have yet to be registered. So we have bought more to mitigate the problem of regulatory approval and for us to mitigate or minimise the risk of late delivery.
"For example, we were supposed to receive the Astrazeneca vaccines in the first quarter of this year but so far, we have yet to receive their delivery schedule.
"So it is better for us to have more vaccines in our portfolio. There is also a possibility that we need to administer booster shots to vaccine recipients, if there is a need to give another dose next year, let's say if Covid-19 remains unresolved then.
"It is good for us to have a stockpile," said Khairy.