WHETHER one gets a Covid-19 booster shot or not will have no impact on a  person’s vaccination status, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said today,

A person will be considered fully vaccinated as long as the individual has received two shots for a two-dose vaccine or the one shot required in a single-dose vaccine.

“The booster dose or lack of a booster dose will not affect your status as being fully vaccinated,” Khairy said at a Press conference at the Kuala Lumpur Hospital today.

“It is not mandatory or compulsory. We will offer it to the targeted groups,” he said.

The third shot and booster dose will be offered to high-risk groups such as those who are immunocompromised, health frontliners and the elderly.

“We won’t force but we highly recommend that these groups come forward to get the booster shots after six months of the second dose, as the vaccines have a waning effect,” he said.

Khairy has said previously that the booster shots will be administered from this month.

He added that the government will also allow the mix-and-match approach for the shots.

The minister previously defined the difference between a third dose and a booster shot as being dependent on a person’s immune response to vaccination.

A third dose is given to individuals who, even after being fully vaccinated, cannot produce an adequate immune response against Covid-19, while a booster shot is for those who were able to produce an optimum response against the virus but this effect wanes after a few months.

Khairy said last month the ministry was developing guidelines on administering the third and booster shots before they are offered to targeted groups. – October 7, 2021.