PUTRAJAYA, Nov 27 — The Malaysian government, through the Health Ministry, has signed a preliminary purchasing agreement with pharmaceutical company Pfizer to obtain 12.8 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to meet the immunisation needs of 20 per cent or 6.4 million Malaysians.
Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said the agreement, signed on Tuesday (Nov 24), aimed to ensure the government had access to data to assess the vaccine’s quality, safety and effectiveness while also ensuring access once it was ready for distribution.
“Pfizer on Nov 9 stated that the first interim data analysis showed that vaccine efficacy was at 95 per cent.
“Through this agreement, Pfizer has pledged to deliver one million doses, 1.7 million doses, 5.8 million doses and 4.3 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine in the first, second, third and fourth quarters of 2021,” he told a virtual media conference here today.
Also present were Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba and Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin.
PM @MuhyiddinYassin has also announced that the COVID-19 vaccine that the government procures will be FREE for Malaysians.
— Khairy Jamaluddin 🇲🇾🌺 (@Khairykj) November 27, 2020
The first shipment of Pfizer vaccines of 1mn doses will arrive in Q1 2021. This will be used to vaccinate 500k frontline workers first. Then we will prioritise high risk groups (elderly, those with comorbidity), followed by general population.
— Khairy Jamaluddin 🇲🇾🌺 (@Khairykj) November 27, 2020
– BERNAMA
