The vaccine coordinating minister said appointments were currently being issued in stages according to the women’s estimated due date.

“As of the end of last week, we issued 3,000 appointments in Kuala Lumpur and 224 in Perlis,” Khairy said at a press conference today.

He said the vaccination sessions for pregnant women in the two areas would take place this weekend. Appointments for would-be mothers in other states were still being processed and would be issued in the coming weeks, he added.

He also said 5,621 appointments had been issued to students looking to pursue their studies overseas.

Meanwhile, Khairy said the Covid-19 vaccine supply access guarantee special committee would discuss this week using the Pfizer vaccine for children aged 12 years and older.

He said the committee would also decide when to roll out the vaccines based on advice from a technical working group comprising medical experts.

While the health ministry has signed an agreement with Duopharma (M) Sdn Bhd to procure 6.4 million doses of the Sputnik V vaccine, he said the company still had three months to register the vaccine with the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA).

“I understand the NPRA requires further information befores it makes a decision, but they have informed me that the approval process will be fast-tracked if Sputnik is validated for emergency use by the World Health Organization.”

At the same time, he said the government was finalising the delivery schedule for the first doses of the CanSino vaccine to arrive next month.

As for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, he said they were still awaiting a response from the Covax facility on a tentative delivery date.