COVID-19 vaccination for teenagers will begin in Sarawak today with the Klang Valley and Labuan following suit soon, health minister Khairy Jamaluddin said.

Khairy said these teenagers will be administered the Pfizer vaccine.

“The @JKJAVMY has green lit the commencement of adolescent Covid-19 vaccination. Sarawak will begin today starting with 16-17 year-olds and 12-15 yo who are at high risk (w/ chronic medical conditions). Labuan & Klang Valley will follow shortly. We will be giving the Pfizer vax,” he said in a tweet.

This comes after the health ministry issued a circular last month, which was sighted by The Malaysian Insight, that the vaccination programme for two categories of teenagers will begin in mid-September.

The first category involves teenagers aged between 12 and 15 who have health conditions.

The second category are for teenagers aged between 16 and 17 with and without a health condition.

Director-general of health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said in the circular that this will, however, depend on the availability of vaccine supplies.

“The order in this letter will be in effect on September 15,  2021,” he had said.

He added that there are three categories of recipients who will have to be assessed.

They include those with a history of allergies to vaccination, medicine and other things; those who are immunocompromised due to disease or treatment; as well as those who are on anticoagulant medicines or have bleeding tendencies. – September 8, 2021.