KUCHING (Oct 2): Dato Sri Dr Sim Kui Hian has said that it is timely for the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA) to grant conditional approval for adolescents aged between 12 and 17 to be inoculated with Sinovac vaccine.
The Sarawak Disaster Management Committee advisor said they will work with the state Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF) and state Health Department on the latest conditional approval.
“(It is) timely for the NPRA medical experts chaired by (Health director-general) Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah to review Sinovac submissions and conditional approval for 12 to 17 years old.
“(It serves as) another weaponry in our war against Covid-19,” he said in a Facebook post last night.
Dr Sim, who is Local Government and Housing Minister, said they will work with the state CITF and Sarawak Health Department on the latest conditional approval for Sarawakians aged from 12 to 17, particularly those who are allergic to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
He added that the safety and efficacy of any vaccine is of utmost importance.
Dr Sim said he hoped that the NPRA will approve Pfizer-BioNTech and Sinovac vaccines for younger age group as this group accounted for about 20 per cent of the state’s cases.
Yesterday, the NPRA announced that it had given its conditional approval for the use of the Sinovac vaccine for adolescents aged 12 and above.
Dr Noor Hisham said the decision was made during the authority’s 364th conference.
Manufactured by Sinovac Life Sciences Co. Ltd. of China and Malaysia’s Pharmaniaga Lifesciences Sdn Bhd, Sinovac vaccine would be eventually used for teenagers.
This is the second Covid-19 vaccine approved for teenagers after the Cominarty vaccine produced by Pfizer-BioNTech was given the greenlight in June.