No decision yet on giving children Covid jabs, says Khairy

Malaysia has yet to decide on vaccinating children below the age of 12, says Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin.

“There has been no approval yet for paediatric vaccination in Malaysia or anywhere else. It’s still under review by regulatory agencies, whether the Food and Drug Administration or the National Health Control Authority.

“Once there is enough data to support that it is safe to give out to children, we will take that to the vaccination committee for consideration and for us to decide,” he told a news conference on Covid-19 updates yesterday.

He said vaccine manufacturer Pfizer-BioNTech was in the midst of producing a Covid-19 vaccine for children which would have a different dosage from the vaccine for adults.

With no approved vaccination for those 12 and below, he said, vaccinating the adult population at schools would be the best way to ensure the safety of children who have not been vaccinated.

Khairy said the health ministry was also considering making Covid-19 vaccination mandatory in order to address the issue of anti-vaxxers.

For the time being, however, he said the government would maintain its stance that vaccines would not be legally mandated,

“I’ve not come to the stage where I would recommend to the Cabinet a federal mandate but I’m not far from it either,” he said.

He added that a new policy on testing for Covid-19 would soon be implemented for those who refuse to get vaccinated for non-medical reasons.

Under this policy, a person would need to test themselves with a Covid-19 test kit regularly to ensure they are free from the virus.