PUTRAJAYA: Further analysis is being conducted on Covid-19 deaths and patients admitted to the intensive care units (ICU) to determine whether this was is due to the spread of Variants of Concern (VOC), patients' condition or the type of vaccine, among others.
Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said this when commenting on the Real-World Evaluation of Covid-19 Vaccines under the Malaysia National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (RECoVaM), which was disclosed yesterday.
He said should the ministry's analysis point towards the type of vaccine used as one of the reasons for Covid-19 deaths and ICU admissions, the authorities would then look into administering booster doses to Sinovac recipients.
This, he said, could even be a 'mix and match' (heterologous dosing) where other vaccine brands such as Pfizer and AstraZeneca may be used as booster shots for people who received two doses of Sinovac vaccine.
"We take note that out of the number of ICU admissions and number of deaths, the data showed that in terms of numbers, the highest involved Sinovac vaccine recipients.
"We have to do a more in-depth study to determine whether it is due to the type of vaccine, VOC, or other things, such as information about the patient, and when they were infected.
"So, this greater analysis is being conducted and if it is found that one of the reasons is the type of vaccine, then we will take that into account in giving the booster dose.
"We are still studying (heterologous dosing at the ministry's level) on whether or not we might administer different vaccine types for the booster dose," he said at a special press conference held at the ministry, here today.
The RECoVam study noted that most of the breakthrough infections that led to ICU admission and fatalities occurred among Sinovac vaccine recipients.
While 0.011 per cent of Sinovac vaccine recipients required treatment at ICU after developing breakthrough infections, the study found that only 0.002 per cent of Pfizer vaccine recipients and 0.001 per cent of AstraZeneca vaccine recipients with similar conditions were admitted to ICU wards.
The study involved 14,500,984 fully-vaccinated individuals and was jointly undertaken by the Institute for Clinical Research (ICR) and the Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF) between April 1 and Sept 12.
Khairy, however, said the key takeaway for now is that all the vaccines in Malaysia's portfolio are effective and has cut deaths and ICU admissions.
"This is the most important thing. All three vaccines (Sinovac, Pfizer and AstraZeneca) have demonstrated high efficacy rates.
Irrespective of the vaccine brand, the RECoVaM study found that overall ICU admission rate among fully vaccinated individuals stood at 0.0066 per cent while the overall mortality rate among them stood at 0.010 per cent.