In the Parliament session yesterday (30 September), the Science, Technology and Innovation Minister, Dr Adham Baba said that Malaysia will soon begin the production of Covid-19 vaccines after the negotiations with Sinovac and CanSino.
According to FMT, Adham also told the Parliament that the 2 pharmaceutical firms have given their commitment to manufacture their inactivated vaccines in our country.
He added that his Ministry had made several other efforts too, including a collaboration with a firm from India.
Meanwhile, he said that Malaysia’s own scientists were still working on developing the messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) technology and inactivated vaccine jabs, and his Ministry is planning on a collaboration with a researcher from Chulalongkorn University in Thailand.
He added that the Thai researcher was among the experts who collaborated with the US in developing an mRNA vaccine but he did not mention which vaccine specifically.
Besides, Adham said the Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob will be announcing the government’s strategic roadmap on local vaccine development on 1 November.
He said that the government had spent RM314 million of the RM1 billion allocated for the national Covid-19 immunisation programme (PICK) as at 31 August.
Adham also explained that most of the money was used for operating vaccination centres (PPVs), upgrading the government’s data network and vaccine administration system, and boosting registrations.
He also revealed that the Ministry is currently using blockchain technology in its vaccine management system to record those who have been vaccinated.
With this, the authenticity of each certificate can be determined when checked through its QR code with its own vaccine certificate verifier.
Meanwhile, he also said that the Health Ministry will be improvising their contact tracing system with the Bluetooth technology to map out the possibility of interaction, while big data will be used to identify Covid-19 hotspots and high-risk areas.
He then said that a tracer hub dashboard is expected to be completed by October to facilitate the frontliners to conduct contact tracing, while geofencing will be used by the end of next month to monitor people under surveillance.
What do you think about this? Share your thoughts!
, the Science, Technology and Innovation Minister, Dr Adham Baba said that Malaysia will soon begin the production of Covid-19 vaccines after the negotiations with Sinovac and CanSino.){kind=link}