In a televised address on Monday, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin expressed confidence that the target of vaccinating 80% of the Malaysian population was achievable by the end of this year, with some areas like Kuala Lumpur and Selangor potentially hitting this mark by October.

In a video on his official Facebook page, Mahathir said Malaysia should consider using vaccines that have already received conditional approval for use in developed countries rather than wasting time conducting additional reviews.

“I hear the vaccine from Russia (Sputnik V) has not yet been approved (locally), but that this vaccine is being used in other countries and has got good results.

“If a vaccine can be used in developed countries, like in the US for example, why can’t we use it? In the UK, there was not a single new death yesterday, and that is because they are holding an aggressive vaccination campaign, not just waiting for people to come forward.”

As of Monday, coordinating minister for the vaccine roll-out Khairy Jamaluddin said that in addition to Sputnik, China’s CanSino and the US’ Johnson & Johnson vaccine are currently being reviewed by the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA).

Mahathir’s proposal mirrors that of the Pakatan Harapan Covid-19 vaccination committee, which urged the government and the NPRA last month to speed up approvals for vaccines already passed by the World Health Organization and international authorities.

“Sputnik V has been approved by 60 countries worldwide and the NPRA should attempt to get the necessary data to speed up the approval process.

“If (Sputnik V and CanSino) are approved, the resulting acceleration of the vaccine roll-out would play a major role in fighting the current spike of Covid-19.”