He said this followed the move by other developed countries to study the need for such booster shots in 2022.

“We will continue looking at the data in terms of the length of the protection that the vaccines give.

“This data has to be studied in detail because we already see developed countries looking at procuring more vaccines for next year.

“We want to get better data on how long the protection lasts and whether it wanes at all.

“If it does wane, we must know at what point we must start giving people the third vaccine,” he told reporters today after visiting the Malaysia International Trade and Exhibition Centre (Mitec) vaccination centre that will offer vaccine especially for pregnant mothers.

Khairy noted global concern over the Delta variant, citing reports that 90% of new infections in the UK were from this variant.

Countries like Israel were looking into implementing added measures, such as reinstating masking rules indoors to counter it, he added.

Meanwhile, he said the Covid-19 Vaccine Supply Access Guarantee Special Committee (JKJAV) was still looking into regulatory approval for vaccines for teenagers under 18.

At the policy stage, the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA) had approved Pfizer vaccines for children aged 12 and above.

“The technical group requires further deliberation before we can allow vaccine use for those under 18,” Khairy said.

He added there were concerns over “adverse events” following vaccination of teenagers and children.

Responding to European Union (EU) ambassador to Malaysia Michalis Rokas, who had denied Khairy’s earlier claim about vaccine hoarding by wealthy countries, the minister clarified that he was referring to developed nations procuring vaccines in excess.

Rokas was recently reported as saying that the EU had approved all vaccine requests from the Malaysian government.

“For your information, all requests from the Malaysian government regarding the distribution of vaccines to the country have been approved by the EU secretariat without any problems,” he had said.

Khairy said the vaccines Rokas was referring to were those that had already been procured by Malaysia.

“Those are Malaysia’s vaccines. What I meant was the EU and other developed nations like the US had bought vaccines in excess of their population. That’s what I was talking about when I said they were hoarding vaccines.”

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