Malaysia’s inoculation drive will be largely anchored by the Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccine from now, health minister Dr Adham Baba told a news conference with other top ministry officials.

The country has secured about 45 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, enough to cover 70% of the population, compared to 16 million doses of Sinovac’s shot, the officials said.

“About half of the 16 million have already been distributed, so the rest will be used to cover second doses,” Adham said.

“For those who have yet to be vaccinated, they will receive the Pfizer vaccine.”

The government had previously said it had secured 12 million Sinovac doses, as part of a deal which would see state-linked firm Pharmaniaga carrying out a fill-and-finish process on the vaccine for local distribution.

The announcement to stop using Sinovac’s inactivated virus vaccine comes amid increasing concern over its efficacy against new and more contagious variants of the coronavirus.

Neighbouring Thailand this week said it would use the AstraZeneca vaccine as a second dose for those who received the Sinovac shot, while Indonesia is considering a booster shot for those who received the two-dose Sinovac course.

Other vaccines approved in Malaysia include those of AstraZeneca, China’s CanSino Biologic, and the Janssen vaccine of Johnson & Johnson.

Malaysia also plans to announce its decision on whether to add the vaccine of China’s Sinopharm tomorrow, officials said.

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