Three types of vaccine approved for use on pregnant women

Keeping calm: Mother-to-be Eshter Chang receiving her Covid-19 jab as her husband Ben Toa looks on at the Malaysia International Trade and Exhibition Centre in Kuala Lumpur. - FAIHAN GHANI/The Star

KUALA LUMPUR: The Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca and Sinovac vaccines have received the green light for use on pregnant mothers in Malaysia.

More expectant women throughout the country will be getting their vaccination appointment in the coming days as efforts to inoculate them against Covid-19 intensifies, says Khairy Jamaluddin.

He said women between 14 and 33 weeks into their pregnancy would be given priority and their appointment would be arranged based on their information on MySejahtera.

“Expectant mothers remain top priority for the Covid-19 vaccine as the risk of them being infected is high,” he said after visiting the vaccination centre (PPV) at the Malaysia International Trade and Exhibition Centre (Mitec) yesterday.

It is understood that the PPV at Mitec will be vaccinating 1,500 pregnant women per day.

While the Pfizer vaccine remains the recommended choice, new Health Ministry guidelines also listed the AstraZeneca and Sinovac vaccines as being suitable for pregnant and nursing mothers.

“AstraZeneca has no contraindications to pregnancies and Sinovac is recommended based on the World Health Organisation’s interim report for pregnant and breastfeeding mothers because the benefits outweigh the risks,” said Khairy.

He said about 6,000 expectant mothers had been scheduled to be vaccinated at Mitec and the Sunway Pyramid Convention Centre PPV this weekend, adding that a varied number of expectant mothers living in other states would also be vaccinated in the coming weeks.

As of Friday night, more than 109,600 mothers had registered for their jabs on MySejahtera.

“About 11,663 of them are expected to deliver in August and their vaccination appointment will be based on their estimated date of delivery,” Khairy said, adding that there were more than 10,000 pregnant women having “Expectant Mother” marked on their appointment.

Meanwhile, family medicine special consultant Dr Nazrila Hairizan Nasir said that “while other vaccines can be used, whenever possible, we will use the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine for them”.

“For mothers in hard-to-reach areas, we will use any vaccine that has been proven suitable because their safety and health are more important,” said Dr Nazrila, who is also deputy director of primary health at the Health Ministry’s family health development division.