Policy on purchase of vaccine boosters to be announced by Finance Ministry - Khairy

KUALA LUMPUR: The policy on the purchase of COVID-19 vaccine boosters will be determined and announced by Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Aziz, said National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) Coordinating Minister Khairy Jamaluddin today.

Khairy said the policy would probably be announced when the 2022 Budget is tabled on October 29.

"However, I am confident we will be able to get the additional vaccines for the majority of Malaysians for free, through PICK which will continue to be implemented," he said when winding up the session on the national immunisation programme during the special meeting of the Third Session of the 14th Parliament today.

He said this in reply to a question from Penampang MP Datuk Darell Leiking on the government's ability to buy the booster vaccines and whether the government would be selling the additional vaccines.

Meanwhile, Khairy said the decision on the need for booster shots would be announced by MOH COVID-19 Vaccine Candidate Selection Sub-Committee (JKKPCV) chairman, Dr Kalaiarasu M Periasamy.

"The matter to be tabled will not only be on booster dose requirements based on experiences in other countries but whether we will give heterologous vaccination for the booster dose which is to administer a different type of vaccine from the one received earlier," said Khairy.

He said heterologous vaccination has been adopted in several countries such as Germany and South Korea due to disruption in supply of vaccines.

He said the expert recommendations would be based on clinical data gathered from around the world and this would also help to determine if heterologous vaccination is safe.

-- BERNAMA