KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Malaysia said on Saturday that AstraZeneca PLC coronavirus vaccine has been secured, after the news, it will receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in February as it faces an increase in infections .
The AstraZeneca agreement, to be signed on Monday, will allow vaccination of about 20% of Malaysia’s population, which is 32 million, similar to the agreement with US giant Pfizer Inc. and its German partner BioNTech SE, said Health Minister Adham Baba.
The Southeast Asian nation has experienced an increase in cases since September, with nearly 92,000 cases of the new coronavirus and 433 deaths from COVID-19.
Malaysia hopes to receive enough vaccines to inoculate 10% of the population through COVAX’s global facilities, backed by the World Health Organization, it said in a statement. The government is working to reach more agreements to expand inoculation to 70 percent of the population, Adham said.
“What’s important is which company can provide us with quick access to their vaccine and which should be safe, effective and high quality,” he said.
The government expects to receive the first batch of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine doses in February, Bernama reported. Malaysia said last month that it had agreed to buy 12.8 million doses of this vaccine, becoming the first Southeast Asian country to reach an agreement with the US pharmacist.
Under the Pfizer agreement, Malaysia will receive 1 million doses in the first quarter of 2021 and 1.7 million, 5.8 million and 4.3 million doses in subsequent quarters.
Pfizer-BioNTech has supply deals with several countries, including the United States, Germany, Japan, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom. They expect to produce up to 50 million doses of vaccines by 2020 and up to 1.3 billion doses by 2021.
More than 150 potential vaccines are being developed and tested worldwide to stop the COVID-19 pandemic, with 48 in human trials, according to the WHO.
Report by Joseph Sipalan; Edited by Shri Navaratnam and William Mallard