KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Authorities in Malaysia have granted conditional approval to two more vaccines as they aim to achieve herd immunity to the coronavirus in the country by the end of the year.
Health Director-General Noor Hisham Abdullah said Tuesday that single dose vaccines produced by China’s CanSino Biologics and American company Johnson & Johnson were granted conditional approval for emergency use.
Malaysia already has been using the COVID-19 vaccines made by Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Sinovac. Noor Hisham said the J&J vaccine will be obtained from the global COVAX facility but didn’t give details.
Noor Hisham said the Malaysian health ministry has also given authorization for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to be given to children older than 12. Only people over 18 so far have been eligible for the government's voluntary vaccination program.
Malaysia has been under a large-scale lockdown since June 1 as it struggles to daily infections. Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said in a televised address on Tuesday that restrictions will be lifted in phases.
Malaysia has reported more than 662,000 confirmed virus cases with nearly 4,000 deaths. Less than 10% of the nation’s 32 million people have been vaccinated so far.