PETALING JAYA: The country will begin receiving the AstraZeneca vaccines for Covid-19 in June, says Khairy Jamaluddin.
“The delivery for the vaccine procured directly from AstraZeneca will commence in June when we will receive our first 600,000 doses.
“The subsequent deliveries will then come every month,” the coordinating minister for the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme told a virtual press conference after launching the corporate collaboration ceremony for the national vaccination programme on Wednesday (March 31).
Khairy, who is also Science, Technology and Innovation Minister, assured the public that the country’s AstraZeneca vaccine supply under the World Health Organisation-backed Covax programme would not be affected after India placed export restrictions on the vaccine.
India, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, had temporarily put a hold on exports of the vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII) to focus on meeting domestic demand.
“Our AstraZeneca supply from Covax comes from the manufacturer in South Korea which is SK Bioscience and it doesn’t come from SII.
“So, while we are still waiting for the delivery details from Covax, I don’t believe the ban from India will affect us unless there is something to do with the supply chain there. As far as I know it should not affect us,” he said.
Last year, Malaysia signed a deal to procure 6.4 million doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine.
