Covid-19: Khairy says 18 months to achieve herd immunity

 

Malaysia has set to achieve herd immunity in 18 months against Covid-19 from February after the arrival of the first batch of the initial Covid-19 vaccine supply, said Special Vaccine Supply Access Guarantee Committee co-chairperson Khairy Jamaluddin.

"On the timeline, we hope to achieve our target of getting 70 percent to 80 percent of the population inoculated within 18 months," he said in an interview with Astro Awani tonight.

The initial supply of one million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which is expected to arrive in February, will be used to vaccinate 500,000 frontliners, including 300,000 medical frontliners and 200,000 non-health frontliners.

In the second phase of the vaccination plan, three million senior citizens and 3.5 million individuals with comorbidities are expected to be inoculated during the second quarter of the year, Khairy said.

The general population will be vaccinated in the third phase, added Khairy, who is also science, technology and innovation minister.

In total, he said Malaysia will inoculate 83 percent of its population, including migrant workers who were involved in Covid clusters.

The government is expected to spend RM2.05 billion to inoculate 26.5 million of the population.

The cost includes the three agreements inked with Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access Facility (Covax), Pfizer and AstraZeneca.

Malaysia is also in final negotiations with Sinovac, CanSino Biologics and the Gamaleya Centre to purchase their vaccines. - Mkini