At a vaccination centre in the capital Kuala Lumpur, young children sat anxiously with parents as occasional
“I feel like the (there are) higher chances of me not getting COVID now and I can go dine out,” said 8-year-old Sophie Lee Ming Qi after receiving the vaccine.
The inoculation programme will add to Malaysia’s success in vaccinating most of its people. Nearly 80% of the 32 million population have received at least two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, including almost 98% of adults.
About 517,000 children had registered to take the vaccine made by Pfizer and BioNTech as of Wednesday, local media reports said.
In the past six months, 147,282 children age 5-11 have been infected with COVID-19 and 26 have died.
“It’s a great move,” said Lee Ser Wor, a parent of children being inoculated.
“It’s good for them in order for them to be protected against the COVID-19 virus and in doing so, it is also protecting the public at large.”
Malaysia has recorded 2.8 million coronavirus cases and close to 32,000 deaths overall.
ICER plans to accept public comment on its draft and issue an updated evidence report in late March.
The analysis applies only to use of the drugs for patients at elevated risk of severe COVID-19. If the treatments were used in lower-risk populations, “their cost effectiveness would be significantly reduced,” ICER said.
Pearson said the pandemic has lots of “moving parts” and if the risk of hospitalisation from infection with omicron or a future variant proves to be lower, ICER’s analysis would change.