Malaysia grateful to COVID-19 vaccine donor countries - Khairy

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has expressed gratitude to the countries from which it received donations of the COVID-19 vaccines which helped expedite the distribution of vaccines under the National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK), the Dewan Rakyat was told today.

PICK Coordinating Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said the three donor countries had helped to increase the nation's total vaccine supply to 26.38 million doses.

Japan donated 998,400 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine; the United States, 1,000,350 doses of the Pfizer vaccine and China, 500,000 doses of the Sinovac vaccine.

"On behalf of the government, in this august House (the Dewan Rakyat), I would like to express my appreciation to the countries that have contributed vaccines to our country," he said when giving a statement on the PICK at the Special Meeting of the Dewan Rakyat.

Today is the third day of the five-day Special Meeting.

Khairy, who is Science, Technology and Innovation Minister, said the government, through the Foreign Ministry, was also in talks with several other countries that had expressed readiness to contribute vaccines, such as the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia.

-- BERNAMA