He said the country would be acquiring three million doses of CanSino vaccine, a one-dose vaccine, before the end of the year while an additional supply of six million doses of Sinovac vaccine was sufficient to achieve herd immunity.

“CanSino vaccine is a breakthrough in the view of the Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob as we do not have to wait if there is delay by the supplier.

“CanSino can be used in areas which are difficult to reach and remote for two-dose vaccination,” he said after his first working visiting to the fill-and-finish factory of Solution Biologics Sdn Bhd (SolBio) for Convidicea CanSino vaccine in Bukit Jalil today.

Adham said Malaysia had purchased 3.5 million doses of CanSino vaccine, and of the total, three million doses are for the purpose of ‘fill-and-finish’ while the remaining 500,000 doses will be received in bulk form from CanSino China.

He said 200,000 doses of this vaccine had been received and distributed to states with low rates of vaccination to speed up the process. He added that 300,000 CanSino vaccine doses will be received in September.

Ismail had on Sunday given the authorities up to the end of September to ensure that the six states achieve 50% Covid-19 vaccination of the adult population.

As at yesterday, the six states with vaccination below 50% were Perak (46.9%), Terengganu (46.8%), Johor (46.1%), Kedah (44.2%), Kelantan (43.9%) and Sabah (38%).