Deputy health minister Lukanisman Awang Sauni said only 2.5% of the population have taken the second booster shot leaving vaccine stocks unused.

He said as of June 1, there were 8.5 million expired vaccines of various brands at ministry facilities and vaccine storage warehouses.

The ministry may need to destroy the expired vaccines, he said when winding-up the debate on the white paper on Covid-19 vaccine procurement, which was later approved by the Dewan Rakyat.

Health minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa had previously said that the ministry is still negotiating with Pfizer over the Covid-19 bivalent vaccine.

Lukanisman said the additional purchase and receipt of vaccine donations from other nations contributed to the surplus of vaccine stocks, which was not according to the national Covid-19 immunisation programme plan.

He also said 27.6 million (84.4%) of the population received the complete primary dose; 16.3 million (50%) received a booster dose; and 823,000 (2.5%) received a second booster dose, as of May 30.

The government spent RM5.89 billion on the national immunisation programme from December 2020 to April 30 this year, with RM5.35 billion coming from the health ministry, and RM538 million from the ministry of science, technology and innovation.

He said there were nearly 27,000 reports of adverse events following immunisation from February 2021 until April 30 but only 1,900 reports (7%) involved serious adverse effects.

There were 319 applications for the special financial assistance for Covid vaccine side effects, with 150 approved involving a total payment of RM2.5 million by May 31.