Covid-19: Vaccines used in Malaysia are safe, says Khairy

PETALING JAYA: The Covid-19 vaccines used in Malaysia are safe, says Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin.

"We have delivered 65,356,763 doses of Covid-19 vaccines in Malaysia so far. There have been 1,747 reported serious post-vax adverse effects following immunisation (AEFI). That's 27 out of 1 million or 0.0027%," said Khairy.

He added in the same post on his official Twitter account on Wednesday (Feb 16) that this means that 99.99% of doses were given with no serious effects.

"The vaccine is safe," he added.

This comes after National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA) director Dr Roshayati Mohamad Sani said on Wednesday that 1,747 cases of serious AEFI have been reported as of Feb 11.

She said this was equivalent to 85 cases per million doses administered, adding that there were also eight cases of non-serious AEFI reported among vaccine recipients aged between five and 13 years old – equivalent to 0.1 reports per 1,000 doses.

Dr Roshayati revealed that the total number of AEFI cases reported now stood at 24,990.

"There is no increase in the total number of AEFI cases reported for booster doses when compared to primary doses.

“The same trend is also recorded among countries administering booster doses as part of their immunisation programmes,” she said.

As of Feb 11, the Comirnaty, CoronaVac, AstraZeneca and Convidecia vaccines reported 1,059; 544; 141; and three cases of serious AEFI, respectively.