Health minister Dr Adham Baba said they include immunocompromised teenagers, cancer patients and those with chronic lung disease or other comorbidities, such as juvenile diabetes.
He said this will be subject to the advice of their specialists and the health ministry’s clinical guidelines on the specific dosage.
“As of June 29, 116,378 children were confirmed Covid-19 positive in Malaysia. Of this number, 37,205 are aged 13 to 17.
“Although children accounted for 15% of total Covid-19 cases, they tend to be asymptomatic or have milder symptoms and are unlikely to develop severe illness. Covid-19 related death in children is also very uncommon,” he said in a press conference today.
Adham added that the technical working group of the government’s Vaccine Selection Committee recommended that healthy adolescents may be offered the vaccine but only after taking into consideration the results of an ongoing clinical trial using a lower dosage of the Pfizer vaccine for children and using real-world data from other countries.
The group also proposed that inactivated vaccines be considered for adolescents once the safety and efficacy data is available for the age group.
National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme coordinating minister Khairy Jamaluddin said teachers, school staff and other workers, such as school bus drivers would be prioritised for vaccination if schools reopened.
“On the issue of adolescent vaccination, we will do it later as the plan right now is to consider it only after vaccinations for the adult population are completed,” he said.
Khairy also announced that those turning 18 this year, especially those pursuing their studies overseas, will be able to receive the vaccine after their parents or guardian signs a consent form.
Meanwhile, Adham revealed that another state will be allowed to progress to Phase Two of the National Recovery Plan. This will be announced by senior minister for security Ismail Sabri Yaakob later today.
He said this was after the state managed to achieve the government’s benchmarks on the average number of daily cases, capacity of intensive care units (ICU) and the rate of full vaccinations.
Commenting on Malaysia’s current Covid-19 situation, Adham said 541,725 tests were conducted in the past seven days with a positivity rate of 8.1%, a 0.7% increase over the previous week.
The number of daily new cases and patients receiving treatment in (ICU) have increased by 18.2% and 3.1% respectively. The average occupancy rate at public hospital ICUs remains at 83%.
Adham said the national Covid-19 community transmission was at level 4 as of July 3, indicating a very high incidence of infection.
He added that 146 new clusters, or a 6.3% decrease, were recorded in the past week, of which 86 were detected at workplaces and 49 were from the community.