THE Health Ministry is calling for volunteers to participate in the first Covid-19 vaccine clinical trial in Malaysia.

Healthy adults aged 18 years and above will be eligible for the trial.

The clinical trial will involve the vaccine candidate developed by the Institute of Medical Biology Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (IMBCAMS).

This is in line with Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s announcement on Monday that the clinical trials which are expected to involve 3,000 volunteers will begin on January 21.

Muhyiddin said as much as 60%-70% or 20 to 23 million of the Malaysian population must be vaccinated to achieve herd immunity.

“The first #covid19 vaccine trial in Malaysia is now looking for healthy volunteers. Do contact one of the listed nine public hospitals conducting this trial if you are interested to participate,” MOH said in a Facebook post.

Immunity against Covid-19 and PCR tests are among the benefits volunteers can reap. 

However, on the downside, they could experience potential side effects of the jab, which includes swelling, redness on the skin as well as itch or pain on the injection spot. 

Apart from that, volunteers may also be susceptible to fever, diarrhoea and fatigue among others.

The nine hospitals which will be involved in the trials are, Sg Buloh and Ampang in Selangor, Raja Permaisuri Bainon and Taiping in Perak, Penang General Hospital and Seberang Jaya in Penang, Sultanah Bahiyah and Sultan Abdul Halim in Kedah as well the Kuching General Hospital in Sarawak.

Malaysia has spent RM2.05 billion to procure vaccines to immunise 82.8% of the population.

This includes the finalised deals with Covax, Pfizer-Biontech and AstraZeneca.

The government is also in talks with China-based Sinovac and CanSinoBIO as well as The Gamaleya National Centre of Russia.

Pharmaniaga Bhd recently entered into an agreement with China’s Sinovac Life Sciences Co Ltd (Sinovac), under which the former will carry out the fill and finish process for the vaccine developed by the Chinese producer.

The deal entails 14 million doses, which is enough to cover 22% of the population. – January 16, 2021.