KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 26 — The Ministry of Health (MOH) received 93 applications for Special Financial Assistance on Adverse Effects of COVID-19 Vaccine for cases involving adverse events following immunisation (AEFI) as of yesterday.
Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said of the total, eight applications were approved by the MOH steering committee and were in the process of payment by the National Disaster Management Agency (NADMA) amounting to RM132,500.
“A total of 78 applications are being evaluated of which 56 are under the evaluation of the COVID-19 Vaccine Special Pharmacovigilance Committee (JFK) while 22 applications are under the Medical Technical Committee (JTP).
“Seven applications have been rejected because they are not categorised as serious AEFI cases,” he said during a media conference streamed on MOH Facebook today.
Khairy said applications for financial assistance would be evaluated based on several criteria including that the AEFI occurred within three months after receiving COVID-19 immunisation.
He said requests would be categorised as serious based on the evaluation reports from JFK and the AEFI reports should be sent to the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA) by medical personnel treating the affected individuals.
According to him, the value of the aid is determined based on the JTP’s recommendations and decisions will be made by the steering committee.
Khairy said the amount would not exceed RM50,000 for those detected to experience serious adverse effects that require long-term hospital treatment and not more than RM500,000 in the event of permanent disability or death due to the COVID-19 vaccine.
Regarding visitation rules at government’s hospitals, Khairy said only several categories of patients were allowed to be accompanied by carers or be visited namely those suffering from critical diseases, needing palliative care, patients who are terminally ill, the disabled, the elderly, those needing aid to communicate, children and women during childbirth.
“This is to reduce the risk of COVID-19 infections in hospitals as well as to break the spread of the outbreak. It is important to protect patients, visitors and healthcare workers as well as ensure continuous healthcare services,” he added.
Khairy said those allowed to visit and accompany patients must be fully vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus, were not categorised as high risk to contract the disease or not suspected of contracting the COVID-19 infection.
He said carers needed to undergo the RT-PCR or RTK Antigen COVID-19 screenings 72 hours ahead of coming to hospitals.
“However, in certain situations where the risk of COVID-19 transmission is high such as in the event of an outbreak in hospitals, some modifications to existing policies can be made to ensure the health and safety of all parties,” he said.
