MANDATORY JAB?
INCREASING Covid-19 cases coupled with low vaccine registration may necessitate immunisation being made compulsory for all by September to enable the country to achieve herd immunity, says Khairy Jamaluddin.
THE government may decide to make Covid-19 vaccination mandatory by September if registration numbers remain low. Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said this was to ensure that the country achieved the desired herd immunity levels by December, with 70 per cent of the population vaccinated against the virus.
“September will be the critical point where we (see) if we can get to 70 per cent (of the people vaccinated) by December.
“(In September,) we will have more supply of vaccines. If we cannot get people to register, then the rate of those vaccinated will be lower.
“I told the cabinet that I will come back to them in September and we will have to decide and make the tough call of making Covid-19 vaccination mandatory,” he said during an interview with a radio station yesterday.
He said many Malaysians were adopting a “wait and see” approach to see if Covid-19 vaccines were safe and had no side effects, but he was optimistic that registration numbers would pick up.
He said achieving herd immunity was also dependent on other factors, including the delivery and approval of vaccines.
“Based on plans and the delivery schedule, we have more (vaccine) supply than the current registration numbers by June or July. This is when deliveries will come in greater quantities, especially for Pfizer and Sinovac.”
Up to Thursday, 8,309,480 people had registered to be vaccinated. More than half a million people have received their first dose of vaccine, while 360,971 have received their second dose.
On calls to allow the public to choose their preferred vaccine, Khairy said people should trust that the country’s regulators had chosen only safe and effective vaccines.
He assured the people that the government would stop the use of a vaccine if there was data proving that it was unsafe or if the risks of using it outweighed the benefits.
He said only two countries allowed its citizens to choose their vaccines, Hong Kong and Serbia.
“For now, trust the regulators and take whatever vaccine is offered to you. Fifty per cent efficacy is better than none.
“We will monitor the efficacy of all vaccines to ensure (safety) is not compromised.”
Khairy, who is National Covid19 Immunisation Programme coordinating minister, said Covid19 variants posed a huge impact on public health response as well as the effectiveness of vaccines against the variants.
He said some vaccines were less effective against the infectious B1351 variant from South Africa.
“If a strain becomes dominant in a country, they will have to make significant shifts with the vaccine portfolio. In South Africa, for example, they have shifted almost exclusively to the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.”
He said in Malaysia, the National Institute of Health (NIH) and Malaysia Genome Institute (MGI) were conducting continuous genomic surveillance to detect other Covid-19 variants in the country.
So far, the NIH, MGI and public universities have sequenced 421 genomes of the SARS-CoV 2 and have sent the data to the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data and the World Health Organisation.
“We will need to conduct more surveillance on how prevalent (other variants are) in Malaysia. We plan to increase contribution to 3,000 sequences.”
Phase Two of the vaccination programme is scheduled to run from this month to August, involving about 9.4 million senior citizens aged 60 and above and high-risk groups.
Phase Three will begin from next month until February next year, with the aim of vaccinating about 13.7 million citizens and non-citizens aged 18 and above.
At a separate event in Subang Jaya earlier, Khairy said the government would review its stand on the AstraZeneca vaccine in two weeks’ time via the Covid-19 Vaccine Supply Guarantee Special Committee (JKJAV).
He said the meeting would also touch on the European Medicines Agency’s (EMA) recent findings on the vaccine’s side effects involving blood clotting cases.
“We will be presented with additional information by a panel of experts from the Health Ministry before we make any decision. I think the best stand is to refer to JKJAV based on the latest information we receive from EMA.”
He said the government took note of the decision and announcement by EMA, which found a connection between the AstraZeneca vaccine and blood clotting cases, adding that this was the first time a link between the two had been established
“Before the findings, our stand
was made by (Health Minister Datuk Seri) Dr Adham (Baba) two days ago, in that we will continue with the vaccine,” he said at a press conference after launching the 2021 Champs-Nasom Autism Awareness Campaign at Core Design Gallery in Subang Jaya yesterday.
Khairy said any plans to educate the public to counter vaccine hesitancy would be done after the review by JKJAV. He advised the public not to worry as the country had yet to receive the vaccine supply from AstraZeneca.
“We have yet to use it and expect to receive the supply in May. There is enough time for JKJAV to make any decision, whether to continue using AstraZeneca or not.”
On another matter, Khairy said Malaysia had yet to decide on whether to ease travel conditions for those who have been inoculated and allow them to carry an
immunity passport.
“Any vaccine passport must contain the individual’s Covid-19 screening test results and immunisation proof. Every country’s protocol requires you to present proof of immunisation and screening test results.
“There is a possibility of those who have been inoculated to be infected with Covid-19, so it is not 100 per cent (safe from infection).
“The best rule is for us to request immunisation proof and screening test results for the last 72 hours. In Qatar, for example, they allow visitors with documents on vaccination and negative screening tests to enter the country.”
China last month became the first country in the world to issue vaccine passports that detail a traveller ’s Covid-19 inoculation status, as well as nucleic acid and antibody test results.