Khairy: Severe cases among vaccinated, take booster shots

Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin.

PETALING JAYA: With the number of severe Covid-19 cases among vaccinated people increasing, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin has called on all to take booster shots when able to.

He said the effectiveness of vaccines will start to wane after a few months, with the Sinovac vaccine being the quickest to lose its effectiveness.

“While Sinovac is effective, there is evidence its effectiveness wanes sooner.

“That’s why we want you to take whatever booster is on offer,” Khairy tweeted yesterday.

He explained that the faster waning period is the reason why the interval for Sinovac booster shots is three months, compared to six months for Pfizer and AstraZeneca.

In his tweet, Khairy shared a graph showing data for Covid-19 admissions in Hospital Sungai Buloh. It revealed that most of Category 4 and 5 patients are Sinovac recipients.

The last epidemiology week (epid week 45) saw 165 Sinovac recipients admitted to Hospital Sungai Buloh as Category 4 and 5 patients.

In comparison, 24 were Pfizer recipients while seven had taken the AstraZeneca vaccine.

The country started administering booster shots in October, with priority for the elderly, the immunocompromised as well as health and security frontliners.

To date, more than a million booster shots have been administered nationwide.