No plans to postpone rollout of AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, says deputy health minister

Picture shows a vial of the AstraZeneca/Oxford Covid-19 vaccine. — AFP file photo

BAGAN SERAI, April 3 — The government has no plans to postpone the administering of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine despite reports of its side effects on recipients abroad, said Deputy Health Minister Datuk Dr Noor Azmi Ghazali.

He said the reported side effects were treatable allergies besides there has been no evidence that the vaccine causes adverse effects or death.

“If side effects occur, doctors at the vaccination centres will provide immediate treatment and so far, recipients of other vaccine types have also experienced side effects and they were treated properly.

“Don’t worry because we have medicine to treat allergies such as muscle pain, fever or itchiness,” he said in a news conference at the Back to School Haircut Programme for schools in the Bagan Serai parliamentary constituency at the Pusat GiatMara Bagan Serai here, today.

Yesterday, Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the Drug Control Authority (DCA) has agreed to approve the conditional registration of the Covid-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca Solution for Injection, to be supplied through the Covax facility by South Korean manufacturer SK Bioscience Co Limited, for use during an emergency.

Elaborating, Dr Noor Azmi, who is also the Bagan Serai Member of Parliament, said the AstraZeneca vaccine, produced from a viral vector by placing weak virus with protein to stimulate the human body similar to other vaccines, was expected to arrive in Malaysia in May.

Earlier, 80 primary and secondary students in the Bagan Serai parliamentary constituency received free haircut services from GiatMara graduates ahead of the reopening of schools next Monday.

Dr Noor Azmi said besides the annual programme, the less fortunate students also received the Parent-Teacher Association fee payment and school supplies assistance to reduce their burden due to the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. — Bernama

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