KUALA LUMPUR: High-risk individuals including healthcare frontliners and the elderly with comorbidities will receive their COVID-19 vaccine booster shots once 80 per cent of the adult population in Malaysia have received their two doses.
These third doses will be administered “in an effort to increase protection to those vulnerable to the risks of COVID-19 infection” once more than 80 per cent of adults nationwide have been fully vaccinated, Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said on Sunday (Sep 19).
Priority will first be given to high-risk groups such as healthcare frontliners, patients who are immunocompromised, elderly with comorbidities and individuals who live or work in long-term care facilities.
Mr Ismail Sabri said this third dose can increase the immunity levels of individuals who are at high-risk of getting infected with COVID-19, as immunity may decrease after a certain period following the second dose.
He added that a panel of healthcare and medical experts were now developing guidelines on the implementation of the booster shots and that more details of the programme’s implementation will be announced later by Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin.
As of Saturday, 78.2 per cent of the adult population in Malaysia have received two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine while 93.1 per cent have received at least one dose, according to a statement released by Malaysia’s COVID-19 Immunisation Task Force.
The federal government previously said that it was aiming for 100 per cent of the adult population to be fully vaccinated by end-October.
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