“We certainly have hopes of getting vaccines. As of today, there are 11 vaccines that are in Phase 3 of their clinical trials.

“However, we have yet to read any report on the clinical trials in terms of safety and efficacy of the vaccine,” he said during a press conference.

He was asked if Malaysia would be inclined to wait for a cheaper vaccine alternative since the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine requires low temperature storage of -80 degrees Celsius, potentially involving high logistical costs.

Yesterday, Pfizer and BioNTech announced that their vaccine was found to be strongly effective with a 90% efficacy rate in their clinical trials.

Noor Hisham said the government will be very thorough in reviewing the data to ensure safety and efficacy, before procuring any vaccine.

He added that the government would also need to provide the infrastructure to transport the vaccine if they decide to procure it and that discussions were ongoing.

“But the first step is we would need to review the Phase 3 clinical data before making any commitments.”

Meanwhile, Noor Hisham hoped the R-0 (pronounced R-naught) infection rate for Covid-19 cases will drop from 1.0 to 0.5 within the next two weeks.

CLICK HERE FOR THE LATEST DATA ON THE COVID-19 SITUATION IN MALAYSIA