“Our capability to produce vaccines is limited, that is why we have to buy from outside. So it is worth investing in the R&D (research and development) of vaccines to ensure we have the capacity to do so in the future.

“This is an unfortunate thing to say, but this is not going to be the last pandemic as there may be others stemming from zoonotic viruses in the future. Countries like Malaysia must be better prepared,” he said.

The coordinating minister for the national immunisation programme said the government has launched a 10-year roadmap in Covid-19 vaccine research involving two universities, adding that RM5 million in grants had been given to Universiti Malaya and Universiti Putra Malaysia for this purpose.

Asked about the issue of 30 more patients suffering from blood clots after being given the AstraZeneca vaccine in the UK, Khairy said he would ask for clinical data from the company before making any decision.

He said that for the time being, there would be no change of stance on the use of the vaccine, unless the drug regulatory bodies decide otherwise.

“We don’t make decisions based on news reports, only on clinical data,” he said, adding it would have to go through two layers namely the Vaccine Supply Access Guarantee Special Committee and the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency.

Separately, Khairy said the health ministry was looking into allowing foreigners who have received full doses of their vaccines to skip quarantine.

“Once the ministry has data showing the vaccines are able to cut transmission, then relaxing the quarantine requirements would make sense.”