Malaysia received 1 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines from the United States this morning (July 5).
The shipment was part of U.S. efforts in sharing 80 million doses of US-made vaccines globally, as there is a growing disparity in immunisation between developed and developing countries, according to Reuters.
The U.S. also pledged to ship 4 million doses of the Moderna vaccine to Indonesia.
As reported by the Malay Mail, the shipment arrived at Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport in Subang this morning and was taken to distribution centres nationwide.
In a statement by the U.S. embassy in Malaysia, Ambassador Brian McFeeters described the delivery of the vaccines as a “long, solid partnership in public health issues” between Malaysia and the U.S., and that they are committed to support Malaysia in its immunisation efforts.
More vaccine supply
Earlier on Thursday (July 1), Malaysia received one million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine donated by Japan, The Star reported.
Japan will also donate similar amounts of the vaccine to Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines.
Malaysia’s Coordinating Minister for Covid-19 Immunisation Khairy Jamaluddin mentioned that more vaccines will be streaming in.
In a tweet, he shared that Malaysia is expected to receive 5.4 million disease doses of Pfizer-BioNtech vaccines from its own procurement by this July.
According to The Edge Markets vaccination trackers, as of July 4, Malaysia administered a total of 8.8 million doses of vaccine and 19.13 per cent of the residents there received at least one shot of the vaccine.
Top photo via khairykj/Twitter