“For example, for women 14 to 33 weeks pregnant, the Pfizer vaccine is the recommended vaccine,” science, technology and innovation minister Khairy Jamaluddin told a press conference today.
Recently, FMT reported that a campaign had been launched to push for clear guidelines about vaccinations for expectant mothers, with MPs like Yeo Bee Yin and Teo Nie Ching lending support to the initiative.
Liyana Helmy Had, who launched the petition, had questioned how expectant women would be identified under the national immunisation programme as the MySejahtera application does not require applicants to declare if they are pregnant.
Khairy said the decision on whether or not to allow AstraZeneca to be given to pregnant women will be made at Thursday’s Covid-19 vaccine supply access guarantee special committee (JKJAV) meeting.
Khairy said that lactating or breastfeeding mothers can receive both the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines while those who are pregnant will be limited to Pfizer.
He also said that breastfeeding mothers who were turned away at vaccination centres because the AstraZeneca vaccine was previously not recommended for them would be contacted to set a new appointment. He also urged them to get in touch with JKJAV.
Separately, Dr Premitha Damodaran, the head of the obstetrics and gynaecology department at Pantai Hospital Kuala Lumpur, noted that there has been increasing concern among pregnant mothers on whether or not to take the Covid-19 vaccine.
Stating that mothers have always been receiving vaccines when they were pregnant to ensure that they can deliver healthy babies who are protected from diseases, Premitha said in a statement that “right now, we need to get mothers to take the Covid-19 vaccine” as it is proven to be much deadlier than other diseases.
Touching on the side effects of Covid-19 vaccines, Premitha assured pregnant mothers that post-vaccination side effects such as soreness, headaches, nausea and fever are generally manageable and harmless to the mother and baby.
Asked about the effect that Covid-19 variants would have on the country’s ability to reach herd immunity, Khairy said this would depend on various factors such as the development of such variants and whether existing vaccines would be effective against any mutations.
“In terms of supply, we are confident we can cover as many people as possible before the end of the year, but whether we can achieve herd immunity depends on how the virus continues to mutate and whether we can get people who haven’t registered to come forward,” he said.
“I forecast that after September or October, we will have different problems on our hands as the vaccination rate would have plateaued, so we would need to find other people to vaccinate.”
CLICK HERE FOR OUR LIVE UPDATE OF THE COVID-19 SITUATION IN MALAYSIA
We are live on Telegram, subscribe here for breaking news and the latest announcements.