Khairy: Those who can’t take COVID-19 vaccine will be issued exemption certificate

The national COVID-19 immunisation programme is currently underway. However, some individuals may not able to get the jab due to having serious allergies or are immunocompromised. For those who are exempted, the government is planning to issue an official certificate to prove that they can’t take it due to safety reasons and not because they refused to get vaccinated.

This was shared by Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Khairy Jamaluddin during a press conference after visiting Universiti Malaya Medical Centre vaccination centre yesterday. He added that this will be done in fairness to those who can’t take the vaccine.

He also added that the government is still refining its plan to issue digital vaccine certificates via the MySejahtera application. It is also working on providing information to the WHO and other countries, so that the certificate is recognised as proof of vaccination worldwide.

Khairy also said that the government is currently drafting a strategy on vaccinating the homeless, refugees and undocumented migrants. He will be meeting with the UN agencies this week to discuss on the best method to vaccinate these groups. The minister is also meeting Kuala Lumpur City Hall on vaccinating the homeless.

As announced previously, the Malaysian government will introduce protection scheme which will provide compensation to any individual that suffered serious side effects after receiving the vaccine. The scheme will be announced sometime next Monday.

Khairy will also be the first person in Malaysia to receive the Sinovac vaccine. The first batch of 100,000 doses of finished Sinovac vaccines are expected to arrive on 15th March 2021, followed by another 100,000 doses a few days later.

The earlier bulk batch of Sinovac vaccines which will be bottled locally via Pharmaniaga is still undergoing stability testing by the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA). He added that the local fill-finished Sinovac vaccines can be rolled out by next month once approval is given.

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