by S BIRRUNTHA / pic by TMR FILE

MALAYSIA is expected to receive at least 18.8 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines this month, said National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (NCIP) Coordinating Minister Khairy Jamaluddin.

These will include 800,000 doses of the Sinovac vaccine which will be contributed by China to help Malaysia in its fight against the pandemic.

“The shipment of the vaccines from the Chinese government is expected to arrive in the middle of this month.

“Apart from that, the delivery of the remaining 12 million doses of the Sinovac vaccine will also be completed to Malaysia this month,” he said during a press conference on the NCIP development with Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba today.

Earlier this morning, Malaysia received one million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine from the United States (US) government.

Additionally, Khairy said 5.42 million more doses of the same vaccine will arrive this month.

“Combined with the donation received from the US today, which is 1,000,350 doses, the total will be 6,429,150 doses of Pfizer vaccines,” he noted.

Meanwhile, Khairy said apart from Japan’s contribution of the AstraZeneca (AZ) vaccine, the country also obtained 586,700 doses of AZ vaccines through the Malaysian government.