THE Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force will decide on Thursday whether pregnant women can be given the AstraZeneca vaccine, said Khairy Jamaluddin. 

“As far as we know now, Pfizer and AstraZeneca can be given to lactating mothers. The Pfizer vaccine can also be given to pregnant women. 

“As for whether AstraZeneca can be given to pregnant women, the programme will decide this on Thursday and announce it subsequently,” the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme’s coordinating minister said at his weekly Covid-19 vaccination press conference today. 

The task force, according to Khairy, will also discuss the single-dose strategy suggested by the opposition. 

“There is emerging data that suggests a full dosage gives better protection. But we will discuss this on Thursday.” 

Pfizer and AstraZeneca require two doses and can only be administered after three weeks and 12 weeks respectively. 

The opposition had proposed the single-dose strategy as a way of vaccinating more people in light of the rising number of infections and deaths. 

But last week, director-general of health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the long-term efficacy of administering a single-dose vaccine is unknown. 

He said the third phase of the clinical trial had shown the vaccine could achieve efficacy of 89% after 14 to 21 days of the first dose. 

Noor Hisham said the study did not have data about relying on a single dose for the long-term. 

“At the moment, the long-term efficacy of administering a single dose of the Pfizer vaccine is not known because the recipients in the clinical trial all received their second dose between 19 and 42 days. 

“It is important to note that a drastic increase in antibodies that can provide long-term efficacy is after the second dose. 

“A delay in the second dose could slow the production of optimum antibodies,” said Noor Hisham. – May 25, 2021.