THE Health Ministry is hoping to get all teachers and support staff at schools fully vaccinated to provide a safe teaching and learning environment for children as they return to schools in October, Khairy Jamaluddin said today.

The newly minted health minister said vaccinating the adult population at schools would be the best way to keep it safe for children, all of whom have yet to be vaccinated.

He said this was because there is not yet a clear starting date to vaccinate those who are between 12 and 17 years old, and there is no approved vaccine for those aged 12 and below at this point in time.

“In this context, I am pleased to inform you that according to the latest figures obtained by the Health Ministry, out of a total of 412,000 teachers nationwide, 96.5% of them have received at least one dose of vaccine.

“Meanwhile, 83.5% of teachers have completed two doses of vaccine followed by 84.8% of school support staff have received one dose,” Khairy told the members of the media at his press conference in Putrajaya today.

Last month, the Education Ministry said that schools will be reopening in stages from October 3 onwards.

Khairy hopes the remaining teachers will receive their jabs before school reopens, while remarking in jest that he would refer anti-vaxxers to Tuanku Mahkota Johor Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim.

“We hope that 100% of the teachers can be fully vaccinated.

“As for those teachers who do not want to be vaccinated or anti-vaxxers, I will ask them to meet the Tengku Mahkota of Johor later,” he said.

This was in reference to the crown prince’s decision last week to meet with 779 teachers in Johor who have declined to be vaccinated against Covid-19.

Meanwhile, Khairy said the government has not had any approval so far to provide vaccines to adolescents below the age of 12.

He said it was still under assessment and review by the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA) and the National Health Control Authority (NHRA) in Malaysia.

Khairy, however, said Pfizer-BioNTech is in the midst of coming up with a specific vaccine to be used for children.

“In my discussions with Pfizer recently, I was informed that they may come up with a specific vaccine that will be used for children.

“This vaccine will have a different dosage level than the vaccine currently being given to adults.

“So, we are still involved in the negotiation process with Pfizer and are trying to get clinical data to see if the vaccine is safe to give to children.

“Hence, until now we have not made any decision whether to give vaccines to children,” he said. – September 1, 2021.