Khairy: You can pay to get COVID-19 vaccines via private sector as early as August

Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation Khairy Jamaluddin has revealed yesterday there will be a private COVID-19 vaccine market in Malaysia as early as August. This would allow individuals who wish to get their COVID-19 vaccine jab faster to pay for their own vaccine.

Khairy said private companies right now are unable to provide COVID-19 vaccines on the private market due to lack of vaccine supply, however, he added that several private companies will soon be authorised to bring in vaccine supplies directly from China. This would include the Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine which is expected to be registered soon.

He said he is in talks with the Ministry of Health to ensure that the private vaccine market can take off by August. He added that he has also instructed a GLC pharmaceutical company to start talking to the Chinese suppliers to import vaccines for the private market.

Khairy said “If you want to go fast, you pay-lah” and this would help to accelerate COVID-19 vaccinations in Malaysia.

However, do beware of potential fraud and scams that try to sell vaccines online. Police have recently arrested several individuals who claim to offer vaccine packages at RM450 for locals and RM800 for foreigners.

At the moment, Malaysia is vaccinating everyone including citizens and non-citizens for free under the National COVID-19 Immunisation Program. Malaysia is currently administering over 250,000 doses per day through mass vaccination centres, participating clinics and hospitals, and several outreach programmes. Malaysia aims to ramp up vaccinations to hit 400,000 doses per day by August.

The programme is currently administering Pfizer, Sinovac and AstraZeneca vaccines, but individuals will not be given the option to choose. Malaysia has procured over 79 million doses which is more than enough to vaccinate the total population.

As of yesterday, over 6.8 million doses have been administered and almost 5 million people in Malaysia have received at least one dose which is 15% of the population.

There are currently 5 phases in the programme and Phase 3 which covers all adults between 18 to 59 years old have started early this week in the Klang Valley with the opening of the Bukit Jalil Stadium PPV. The crucial manufacturing sector is currently being vaccinated under Phase 4.

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