Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin has announced that Malaysian may take booster shots for the Pfizer and AstraZeneca (AZ) vaccines at least 3 months after their primer (previous – 2nd dose) vaccine shot.
He shared the news during a Ministry of Health (MOH) press conference earlier this afternoon.
“With that, the interval (between the primer shot and booster shot) for Sinovac has been 3 months. Now, for Pfizer and AstraZeneca, it is also 3 months for all vaccination recipients 18 years old and above.”
This comes after he reported that real-world evaluations of the Covid-19 vaccines under the Malaysian National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme have shown that the effectiveness of vaccines against Covid-19 infections are lessening over time.
“The latest data, on the other hand, shows that the Omicron variant can cause increased transmission of infection, higher viral binding affinity and higher antibody escape from immunity caused by a vaccine or a natural infection.”
“Other than that, solid evidence that has been gathered since 3 weeks ago shows that Covid-19 booster shots are likely to increase protection against Omicron variant infections. Preliminary study results involving 21 million booster shots conducted in the UK have shown very convincing safety data.” he said.
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Also read: Pfizer’s Booster Shot Can Allegedly Neutralise Omicron, According To The Company