KUALA LUMPUR: The "inequitable" distribution of vaccines around the world may deter Malaysia's third phase of the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (NIP).
Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said while phase 2 of the NIP was going as scheduled, Malaysia might not have enough to begin phase 3 in May as initially planned.
"Phase 2 is ongoing… Phase 3 is supposed to start in May, but I don't know if we have enough (vaccines) to start.
"In Malaysia, (the slow rate of vaccination) is not due to the inefficiency of the vaccination programme. In fact, we scheduled 260,000 appointments in one day.
"It's not that we cannot do it fast, but vaccine supply is slow," Khairy told a press conference after his visit to the AstraZeneca vaccination centre at World Trade Centre Kuala Lumpur, here.
He added that Malaysia, as a developing country, was "extremely dissatisfied" with the distribution of vaccinations, adding that pharmaceutical companies had prioritised richer countries.
"This is something the international community would need to continue discussing, how these much needed and much sought-after vaccines have essentially been monopolised by Western countries.
"I'm trying to manage expectations here. The vaccines are not sitting in some freezer in Kuala Lumpur, they have not arrived yet," he said.
Khairy assured that the vaccines would arrive on a gradual basis, and they would receive more supply in June and July this year.
Meanwhile, Khairy said the AstraZeneca vaccinations would be expanded to other red zone states, when over 1 million of its doses will arrive later this month.
Once the Covid-19 Vaccine Global Access (Covax) facility furnishes more details on the vaccine delivery, he said, the Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF) would discuss with state governments to open up more AstraZeneca vaccination centres.
"From our experience, we turned around these vaccination centres in two to three days.
"We are quite confident that we can open up a vaccination centre between 48 and 72 hours," he said, adding that the AstraZeneca vaccination will go parallel with NIP.
Nearly 2,500 people have booked their appointments at the World Trade Centre KL.
Two other AstraZeneca vaccination centres - at Universiti Malaya (UM) and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) - started operations today, with 996 and 928 appointments respectively.
Khairy said as at 12pm, 682 people had been vaccinated at the World Trade Centre, while 449 were inoculated in UM and 493 in UKM.