TWG recommends booster dose for recipients of various vaccines - Khairy

KUALA LUMPUR: The Technical Working Committee (TWG) under the COVID-19 Immunisation Task Force-Booster (CITF-B) has recommended booster dose involving three types of vaccines to be dispensed to all residents aged 18 and above.

Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said the vaccines are Comirnaty, AstraZeneca and CoronaVac with appointment priority given according to age step down approach, frontliners, individuals with comorbidity, pregnant women and those who need to travel abroad.

"For recipients of CoronaVac vaccine, the booster dose would be given three months after the second dose. They are recommended to receive the booster dose vaccine from Comirnaty (Pfizer) for all levels or the AstraZeneca vaccine for individuals aged 50 and above.

"For individuals who could not take Comirnaty or AstraZeneca vaccines as a booster dose, the CoronaVac (Sinovac) vaccine could be administered, nonetheless they have to inform the vaccination centre (PPV) to receive the vaccine," he said in a statement today.

Apart from that, AstraZeneca vaccine recipients would be given a booster dose six months after the second dose and they are recommended to receive the same vaccine for all ages even though Comirnaty vaccine could be used.

"Recipients of Comirnaty, Spikevax and Convidecia would be given booster dose six months after the last jab while for recipients of Covilo vaccine, it is three months after the second dose and the Janssen vaccine, two months after the last shot," he said.

He said the booster dose would be dispensed at private medical practitioner facilities or off-site private health facilities and the booster dose is also administered at selected health clinics and government hospitals as well as outreach centres.

He said the appointment of booster dose for eligible individuals would be given through MySejahtera application or recipients could register in the waiting list to obtain the appointment dates at selected public and private health facilities.

The list of public and private health facilities involved in administering booster dose can be obtained via the Health Ministry website at https://covid19.moh.gov.my/vaksin-covid-19 or Protect Health website at https://protecthealth.com.my/.

-- BERNAMA