Guidelines for fully vaccinated people in August

 

The government will be coming out with guidelines for fully vaccinated people next month, said de facto Covid-19 vaccination minister Khairy Jamaluddin.

He had previously said that the government may consider easing restrictions for those fully vaccinated.

“However, with the spread of the Delta variant, we’re being cautious,” he said during a press conference at the Mines International Exhibition and Convention Centre (MIECC), Seri Kembangan today.

The Delta variant of Covid-19 is highly contagious, and the number of sequences of the variant detected has nearly doubled in the span of a week.

The variant is associated with outbreaks in India, the UK and Australia due to its increased transmissibility, and is also moderately resistant to vaccine-induced immunity.

With two doses of vaccine, protection against Delta variant infections that develop symptoms for Pfizer is 88 percent, and 60 percent for AstraZeneca.

A Sinovac spokesperson, meanwhile, said its vaccines had a “three-fold reduction” in neutralising effect against the Delta variant.

Meanwhile, Khairy said he will also be speaking to the European Union regarding restrictions on those who received AstraZeneca vaccines made in certain countries.

Healthcare news site CodeBlue reported that the newly enforced EU Digital Covid Certificate only recognises EU-approved shots for free travel within the bloc.

This does not cover AstraZeneca vaccines manufactured in South Korea, Japan, and Thailand, of which Malaysia uses.

Khairy said the vaccines used are exactly the same as those manufactured in the EU.

“We hope there won’t be any discrimination on which factory produces the vaccine,” he said.

He added that Malaysia is also in talks with Saudi Arabia, which does not recognise Sinovac at the moment - despite its widespread use in major Muslim countries including Indonesia, Pakistan, and Turkey. - Mkini