An influential Instagram page, newsocietymy, says the authorities are removing Sinovac from the National Immunisation Rollout for several reasons.
Some reasons they mention is because Malaysia already imported 44 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and allegedly lower effectiveness against the Delta variant.
However, several news reports show it is not true that Sinovac will be removed from the immunisation programme.
Instead, Science, Technology, and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin confirm Malaysia may purchase additional Sinovac vaccines if needed.
“We are closely watching the developments on AstraZeneca in Thailand. We will discuss bilaterally with Thailand, who are good neighbours of ours, to ensure that our supply of AstraZeneca vaccines from Thailand is not disrupted.
“But we have a Plan B, and that is to buy more vaccines from Sinovac. We can fill-and-finish Sinovac vaccines in the country already.
“Pharmaniaga knows that in any contingency, we may call on them to produce for the Federal Government,” said Khairy at the Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF) weekly press conference on Friday (July 16).
Sinovac may not be rolled out after the country runs out of stock of the vaccines, not because the government wants to remove it from the programme.
