KUALA LUMPUR: Frontliners and senior citizens who have been fully vaccinated for at least six months will be given the booster dose.
Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said the booster dose would be on a voluntary basis and free under the Covid-19 National Immunisation Programme (NIP).
He said those eligible would get the notification via MySejahtera while those who are not using the app would get SMS or a call from the vaccination centres.
Khairy said the booster dose was to ensure optimal coverage for Covid-19 vaccine recipients in the country.
"The booster dose is an additional dose that needs to be given to someone who previously have adequate (immunity) protection (against the virus) that eventually decrease over time.
"The booster dose involves those who previously completed their two doses of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine (Comirnaty) and they will be given the same vaccine as the booster dose or homologous vaccination," he said in a statement today.
He said Comirnaty was the only vaccine that had been approved by the Drug Control Authority (DCA) at the moment.
Khairy said private clinics (GPs) under ProtectHealth Corporation Sdn Bhd will be in charge of frontliners and senior citizens aged 60 years old and above, while the health workers could turn to government health facility.
"Private health workers could get the booster dose at their respective workplaces, depending on the agreement with the state health departments; while the Malaysian Armed Forces health facilities would be in charge of their frontliners."
He said the Health Ministry also plans to start doing research on having the booster dose for different type of vaccines, for heterologous vaccination (different vaccines).
"The research will be implemented in Sarawak next month (November) and will be expanded to other states after obtaining the approval from the Medical Research and Ethics Committee (MREC).
Meanwhile, Khairy said additional shots or the third dose would be given to immunocompromised groups such as cancer patients, organ recipients and kidney patients currently under dialysis treatment.
"Additional shots will be given at least 28 days after the recipients' second dose, at selected health facility under the supervision of a physician.
"The choice of vaccine would depend on the approval of the indications for use by physicians and the supply of vaccines available, either from the same type (homologous) or different (heterologous) from the last dose."
He also assured that Malaysia had sufficient supply of vaccines for the implementation of the booster dose and the third dose.
"As such, all eligible individuals are encouraged to take the additional dose or the booster dose for optimal protection against Covid-19 infection," he said.