KUALA LUMPUR: The government does not control the price of the COVID-19 vaccines administered by private health facilities following the end of the National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme for Children (PICKids) today, said Deputy Health Minister Datuk Dr Noor Azmi Ghazali.

He said the cost of vaccination, including consultancy charges, vaccine price and consumables, depended entirely on the private health facilities that offered the services.

"The price of vaccine will follow the ceiling price, this depends on the private sector because they have to buy the vaccine and charge on consultancy, consumables and so on, it depends on each facility and the price will vary," he said after officiating the World No-Tobacco Day event here today.

Recently, he was reported to have said that the Ministry of Health (MOH) did not intend to extend PICKids as it had given enough time to parents to bring their children to get vaccinated for free.

He said after this, parents will have to seek out vaccination at private clinics for a certain fee.


He also said the MOH is now focused on getting children who turned five on or after May 31, fully vaccinated.

"Children who have yet to turn five years old will continue to be given the opportunity to register and make an appointment at the link provided until Jan 31, 2023.

"For children who have registered for PICKids but are infected with COVID-19 they are asked to defer until they recover for at least six weeks, after which they can go to a health clinic to get an appointment to get the vaccine, which ends on Aug 31," he said.

In another development, he called for members of Parliament to support the Tobacco and Smoking Control Bill which will be tabled this July for approval.

"We intend to bring this bill which the Health Minister will table in Parliament this July. We have waited a long time and we can see a lot of efforts being made but the movement of the percentage of smoking prevalence is very slow.

"In addition, the vape culture will attract young people to continue... which we consider bad for health, so with this bill and the generational endgame (GEG) proposal, it will definitely help solve this (smoking) problem," he said.

-- BERNAMA