PUTRAJAYA: The booster dose interval for recipients of the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccine has been shortened to a minimum of three months after the primer vaccine, from six months previously, said Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin.

He said this meant that a majority of adults aged 18 and above were expected to be eligible for their booster jabs in January and February.

"The Health Ministry (MOH) will increase the capacity for administering vaccines by opening vaccination centres (PPV) at private medical clinics or PPV which will be opened soon at conference halls, as was done under the National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK)," he told a media conference here today.

Khairy said appointments would be given to eligible individuals based on their age and health status, including those with comorbidities and chronic diseases.

He stressed that MOH would prioritise the use of Pfizer and AstraZeneca for the booster dose as these two brands of vaccine had a higher efficacy than Sinovac.

"MOH's suggestion is first choice Pfizer and second choice AstraZeneca. Sinovac (given) only if you are contraindicated against Pfizer and AstraZeneca," he said.

Khairy said Sarawak, the state which kicked off the booster jab programme on Oct 13, had experienced a declining trend the past two months in terms of daily COVID-19 cases, hospital admissions, cases which require intensive care and also deaths.

He said since the 48th epidemiological week (ME), the number of reported cases had been fewer than 1,000 weekly, from 776 cases in the 48th ME to 208 cases in the 52nd ME.

Deaths due to COVID-19 had also dropped, from 497 cases in October to 24 cases in December as of today, he said.

As of yesterday, booster dose coverage in Sarawak has reached 73.54 per cent.

-- BERNAMA