KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is still studying if there is a need to administer a second round of Covid-19 booster jabs in order to curb the spread of the virus following the emergence of new and highly transmissible variants such as the Omicron.
Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said it is still unknown if a person's immunity against Covid-19 will still wane even after he or she has received their booster jab (third Covid-19 vaccine shot).
"From the very beginning, even the manufacturers (of Covid-19 vaccines) do not know whether the vaccines will be effective for a period of six months or more.
"However, we now know that some (portfolios of the) vaccines have shown a slight drop in their immunity against the virus after six months and that it must be topped-up (a person must be administered with a booster shot) to restore their level of immunity against the virus.
"Therefore, we do not know if the immunity level will still decline (even after a person has received their booster jab) and if they need to be topped up (again). This we do not know yet," he told reporters here today.
Khairy, however, stressed this does not mean that Covid-19 vaccines do not curb the spread of the virus.
He said there are several indicators such as when Covid-19 cases reached their peak in August last year, and subsequently declined due to the acceleration of the Covid-19 National Immunisation Programme, leading to wider vaccination coverage among the population.
"This is strong evidence that the vaccine works (in the battle against Covid-19)," he said.