The Ministry of Health (MOH) has announced that the Drug Control Authority has given the green light for Sinovac’s COVID-19 vaccines for children aged between 5 to 11 years old. This makes Sinovac, the second vaccine option to be included under the COVID-19 vaccination for children under 12 (PICKids). It can offered to younger children who can’t take mRNA vaccines or have a history of severe allergies.
According to the Ministry, they have granted conditional approval for CoronaVac Suspension for Injection COVID-19 Vaccine (Vero Cell), which is an inactivated vaccine produced by Sinovac Life Sciences Co Ltd in China and Pharmaniaga Lifescience Sdn Bhd. Previously, it was approved for individuals aged 12 years old and above.
MOH has also mentioned that the condition approval still requires information on the quality, safety and effectiveness of the vaccine to be monitored and evaluated regularly by the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA). This is to ensure that the benefit over the risk of the vaccine remains positive.
Per advice from our COVID-19 Technical Working Group, Pfizer will still be the preferred vaccine for #PICKids if your child has no history of allergies.
— Khairy Jamaluddin 🇲🇾🌺 (@Khairykj) March 4, 2022
CITF-C will, however, make Sinovac available at limited PPVs for informed parental choice. https://t.co/YITNC2U1kp
Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin has also tweeted that the COVID-19 Technical Working Group still recommends Pfizer as the preferred vaccine for the PICKids programme if the child does not have a history of allergies. He added that Sinovac will be made available for children at limited vaccination centres for informed parental choice. The Pfizer vaccine for younger children uses a different formulation and a lower dose of 0.2ml. Under PICKids, the Pfizer vaccine is administered at an 8-week interval between the first and second dose.
For adults who are fully vaccinated with Sinovac, are urged to get their vaccine booster by 31st March 2022 in order to retain their fully vaccinated status. Pfizer and AstraZeneca are still the recommended booster vaccine as data shows that they offer higher levels of protection. Individuals who insist on getting Sinovac as their booster are able to do so via walk-in at offsite PPVs.
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