In a tweet, he said the Covid-19 vaccine supply access guarantee special committee (JKJAV) agreed to shorten the dosing interval after recommendations from its technical working group and based on “greater clarity of the delivery schedule”.

“Those who participated in the first round of AZ will be notified of their second appointment soon,” he said.

Khairy’s announcement comes after Japan contributed one million doses of the AZ vaccine to Malaysia, which arrived at KLIA at 5.45pm today.

As of July 1, Malaysia procured a total of 1.82 million doses of the AZ vaccine.

Khairy said the vaccine donation was a testament to the long-standing relationship between the government and people of Malaysia and Japan.

“I want to thank the ambassador for his diligent, efficient and most kind effort for facilitating the delivery of these vaccines. These will contribute towards higher vaccination rates especially for the month of July,” he said.

Speaking to reporters at KLIA, Japan’s Ambassador to Malaysia Hiroshi Oka said he hoped the donated vaccines would help save lives and support the recovery of businesses in Malaysia.

“Next year happens to be the 65th anniversary since diplomatic relations between our two countries began, and the 40th anniversary since the launch of the Look East policy in Malaysia,” he said.

He added that Japan would continue its cooperation with Malaysia to help overcome the pandemic.

Yesterday, Khairy reiterated that there would be no mixing and matching of vaccines in the country for now as the data was still inconclusive for the government to give the green light.

“We will continue to study it and once a decision can be made, then we will make an announcement. But for now, you will be given the same second dose as your first dose,” he had said.

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