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Malaysia has received its first batch of Covid-19 vaccines today (21 Feb) as flight MH606 carrying Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine landed in Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) at 10.00am.
The vaccines (bearing 312,390 doses) were flown in from Puurs, Belgium after transiting at Leipzig Halle Airport, Germany and Changi Airport, Singapore.
Along with the arrival of the vaccines, Science, Technology & Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin announced the good news that the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme will begin earlier on 24 February 2020 (Wednesday) instead of 26 February as previously decided.
The first recipients of the vaccine will be Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and Health Director-General Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.
Three months to flatten the Covid-19 curve and other news you may have missed
Modified14 Jan 2021, 2:13 am
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1. Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said it could take 12 weeks to “flatten the curve” of new Covid-19 cases, but that could change after two weeks of the movement control order and reduce the daily cases to 1,000 per day after four weeks.
2. Amid questions regarding the efficacy of SinoVac’s Covid-19 vaccine candidate, Special Vaccine Supply Access Guarantee Committee co-chairperson Khairy Jamaluddin gave his assurance that Malaysia would not follow through with purchasing CoronaVac if it fails to meet the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency’s standards of efficacy and safety.
Kuala Lumpur: Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin
(pic) will be among the first individuals to receive the Covid-19 vaccine in a bid to convince the people that the vaccine obtained by the country is safe and effective.
The Prime Minister said it would be followed by the frontliners, before being given to target groups, namely high-risk groups such as the elderly, those with non-communicable diseases and chronic respiratory diseases.
He said the Special Vaccine Supply Access Guarantee Committee, which had been established and co-chaired by the Minister of Health and the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation would ensure that the supply of vaccines could be obtained immediately.