THE Health Ministry has given provisional permission for the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine to be administered to children aged 5 to 11.

Health Director-General Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah in a statement today said the Drug Control Authority reached the decision at a meeting today.

“This conditional registration approval still necessitates information on the vaccine’s quality, safety and efficacy, which will be examined and monitored based on the most recent data from time to time by the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency.

“This is to guarantee that the benefit-over-risk for this vaccination remains positive.”

This age group will receive 10mcg of the vaccine – a dose lower than the one provided to adolescents aged 12 and above.

The vaccine will be an injectable solution that will not need to be diluted before being administered and have a longer shelf-life.

Dr Noor Hisham said: “This new formulation has a longer shelf life of 10 weeks compared with the existing formulation (one month) when stored at 2ºC to 8ºC after thawing.”

On October 29, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin announced that Malaysia will purchase the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children aged 5 to 12.

This comes after the United States recommended the vaccine for children.

Khairy said the country will also consider other vaccines, such as Sinovac.

So far, 58.55 million vaccine doses have been administered to adults and adolescents in the country. – January 6, 2022.