KUALA LUMPUR: As the controversy in Europe on the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine begins to wane, Britain says it values Malaysias continued confidence in the vaccine.
British High Commissioner to Malaysia Charles Hay (pic) said the stand taken by the Malaysian government on the Oxford University-developed coronavirus vaccine was similar to that of his government, in that the vaccine was safe based on scientific data.
He said World Health Organisation (WHO) and medicine regulators confirmed this and that any risk was negligible compared to the danger of contracting Covid-19.
My own Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that he will accept the vaccine. Thats a pretty strong testament of the safety of the AstraZeneca vaccine, he said in an interview.
Johnson, 56, received his first shot of the AstraZeneca vaccine in London last Friday.
Safety concerns led to at least 13 European countries to suspend administering the vaccine shot, slowing an already faltering inoculation campaign in the European Union, which lags Britain and the United States.
However, Germany, France and several European nations resumed using the vaccine after EU and British regulators moved to shore up confidence in the vaccine, saying the benefits outweighed the risks.
Britains Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency said that it was investigating five cases of rare brain blood clot that had been reported out of 11 million shots administered.
Last December, Malaysia signed a deal to procure 6.4 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said on Tuesday that there was no change in the governments decision to buy the AstraZeneca vaccine.
He said this was because there was no data showing a link between the vaccine and the reported cases of blood clotting in some countries.
Hay said more than 11 million doses of the vaccine had been administered in the UK, adding that they were part of the 17 million people in 65 countries who had received that particular vaccine variety.
The envoy said a significant number of Malaysians based in the United Kingdom were vaccinated.
About 14,000 Malaysian students in the UK will be covered. Everybody gets vaccinated. And I welcome the statement by Khairy that the Malaysian vaccine rollout will also include British nationals and other foreigners, he added.
He said almost 28 million people in the UK had received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, with the target being 32 million people in nine priority groups by April 15.
The envoy said his government was committed to supporting equitable access to vaccines worldwide with the UK being the largest donor to the Covax facility, the global mechanism to help developing countries access a Covid-19 vaccine.
Malaysia is expected to receive from Covax 1.6 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine by the second quarter of the year, he said.
The British government has committed £548mil (RM3bil) to help distribute 1.3 billion doses of vaccines to 92 developing countries this year.Meanwhile, Hay said the UK governments Integrated Review, involving the biggest overhaul of its foreign and defence priorities in decades, would benefit countries like Malaysia as his governments focus was now tilted towards the Indo Pacific region.
We are now developing a Global Britain, and looking to boost our alliances and strengthen our capabilities, he added.
Hay said plans were also being made for British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab to visit Malaysia. Johnson had unveiled the 114-page Integrated Review last Tuesday.