Sarawak will begin administering the Covid-19 booster dose next month, focusing on high-risk groups namely senior citizens aged 60 years and above as well as individuals with serious comorbidities, said Khairy Jamaluddin.

The Health Minister said these high-risk groups will be given priority as the authorities found out that they were having serious symptoms and need to be admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) if infected with the virus.

“We will begin (giving the booster dose to the high-risk groups) in October, after we are done with (administering) frontliners (with the booster dose) and the clinical guideline.

“Sarawak will be one of the states to begin the (administration of) booster dose because Sarawak is among the first to finish the vaccination,” he told a news conference after a meeting with Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) at Wisma Bapa Malaysia in Petra Jaya here today.

According to Khairy, his ministry is still working on an assessment whether which type of vaccines would be more suitable to be used as the booster dose.

“Among the issues that we will address in the clinical guideline include the type of vaccines. It is still being assessed, whether a different type of vaccine can be used. All of that will be (made known) very soon.”

At present, he said the ministry would encourage only those categorised as high-risk to be given the booster dose.

He added that other countries across the globe are doing the same – giving booster dose to senior citizens and those with serious comorbidities.

He observed that no country had approved booster dose for the general population.

“In US, the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) has approved booster dose for those aged 50 and above. Anyway, we will issue our clinical guidance soon on this booster dose,” he said.

To a question, Khairy said the government will not rule out the possibility of giving booster dose to those aged 60 and below who are healthy.

Despite so, he said Malaysia’s focus now is to protect the most vulnerable group in the society.

“If you look at the ICU cases, a lot of them are senior citizens and with serious comorbidities.

“There is no point using our resources for those who may not need it right now. We focus on those who need it right now. For others, maybe later,” he added.

Source:
courtesy of THE BORNEO POST

by BY LIM HOW PIM

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