Nearly 2.8 million stored Covid-19 vaccine doses expired on Feb 28, says Health Ministry

KUALA LUMPUR: A total of 2,796,638 vaccine doses of various brands stored at Health Ministry and Covid-19 storage facilities have expired as of Feb 28, says the Health Ministry.

Its minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa said this comprised 3.27% of the total number of vaccine doses acquired by the Malaysian government, inclusive of contributions.

“The government is also bound by a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) set by vaccine manufacturers; specific details cannot be disclosed (to the public).

“This includes vaccine prices. Procurement costs for all vaccines have also been explained in the bipartisan Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) meeting on Aug 2, 2021,” she said in a written reply to Wong Kah Woh (PH-Taiping) on Tuesday (March 21).

Wong was the PAC chairman during the 14th Parliament.

In March 2022, the Health Ministry told the Dewan Rakyat that a total of 88.1 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine worth an estimated RM4.72bil had been ordered by the government for the national immunisation programme.

This includes 20.4 million doses of Sinovac, 44.8 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech for adults and adolescents as well as another 6.6 million doses for children, it said in a written reply.

The government also acquired 6.4 million doses of AstraZeneca from the World Health Organisation-backed Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access (Covax) Facility, 6.4 million doses of AstraZeneca from Oxford University and 3.5 million doses of CanSino.

This brought the total number of vaccines purchased to 88.1 million doses as of Feb 18 that year, covering 143.13% of the population, or 46.03 million adults, adolescents and children.