KUALA LUMPUR: The government's strategy with regards to the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (NIP) remains unchanged amidst the emergence of new coronavirus variants and strains in the country.
NIP coordinating minister Khairy Jamaluddin said, under the programme, the government would administer whichever vaccines were available to any interested persons as quickly as possible.
"We know that AstraZeneca and Pfizer Covid-19 vaccines are effective in its full two doses against the new (Covid-19) variants.
"Sinovac (Biotech Ltd) is also expected to publish the data on the effectiveness of the vaccine (produced by the company) against the new variants this month.
"Having said that, we have seen from early correspondence on the effectiveness (of the Sinovac vaccines) against the new strain (of Covid-19)," he told reporters today.
On a related matter, Khairy said the government had received suggestions on how to increase the interval between the administration of the first and second doses of the Pfizer vaccine, currently fixed at three weeks.
"This is to ensure that some people have some degree of protection, rather than having a smaller number of with complete protection.
"The matter will be discussed during the Special Committee on Covid-19 Vaccine Supply Access Guarantee (JKJAV) meeting on Thursday.
"We will certainly take into consideration emerging data that are coming out of United Kingdom that full two doses are required for effective protection against the new variant," he said.
Khairy, who is also the science, technology and innovation minister, said the interval between the administration of the first and second doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine would be maintained at 12 weeks.
He said the NIP would progress rapidly after the arrival of more supplies of Covid-19 vaccines in June, July and August and with the setting up of more vaccination centres (PPV) nationwide soon.