KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 16 — COVID-19 vaccine recipients aged 60 and above regardless of their primary vaccine type and Sinavoc vaccine recipients aged 18 and above must obtain a booster jab by February next year to maintain their fully vaccinated status.
Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said the proposal was approved at the COVID-19-Booster Immunisation Task Force (CITF-B) meeting on Dec 8.
“If you don’t do so, your (vaccination) status in MySejahtera will turn white (which indicates that you are) not fully vaccinated,” he told a press conference at Parliament building here today.
These individuals will not be eligible for the facilities provided to those who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, he said.
Meanwhile, Khairy said the Mega Vaccination Centres (PPV) would be reactivated to speed up the administration of booster doses.
Khairy said following the detection of the second case of the Omicron variant in the country, additional standard operating procedures (SOPs) had been outlined to curb the spread of the alarming variant.
The SOP states that travellers returning from the United Kingdom must perform daily self tests throughout the quarantine period and report the test results in the MySejahtera application (quarantine period is seven days for those who are fully vaccinated and 10 days for those who have yet to complete their vaccination).
In addition, he said more high-risk countries would be announced and travellers from these countries will have to wear a digital tracking device throughout their quarantine period.
Khairy said Nigeria had been added to the list of high-risk countries.
Also on the list are the United States, Denmark, Australia, France, Norway, India and Canada.
Malaysia has barred travellers from eight countries, namely South Africa, Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Eswatini.
Meanwhile, Khairy said large scale New Year’s Eve celebrations were not allowed to be organised.
“For small scale New Year’s Eve and Christmas celebrations with family and friends, you will need to do a self-test before attending those events,” he said.
Earlier, Khairy announced that Malaysia had detected the second case of COVID-19 Omicron variant involving its citizen, an eight-year-old girl who returned from Lagos, Nigeria, on Dec 5.
