PETALING JAYA: The Health Ministry is studying whether Sinovac vaccine recipients who had been jabbed with a Pfizer booster would need a fourth dose to increase their protection against the highly infectious Covid-19 Omicron variant, says Khairy Jamaluddin.

       The Health Minister said the ministry had taken note of a recent study which found that Sinovac's two-dose Covid-19 vaccine followed by a booster Pfizer shot was less effective in curbing the spread of the Omicron variant.

       "The Health Ministry’s technical working group is studying the information obtained and will submit a proposal to the Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF) whether those who received two doses of the Sinovac vaccine followed by a Pfizer booster shot would need another dose.

       "However, it is too early for us to come to any conclusions," Khairy told a press conference on Saturday (Jan 1).

       Based on media reports, a study conducted by researchers from Yale University, the Dominican Republic's Ministry of Health and several other institutions found two injections of Sinovac vaccine followed by a Pfizer-BioNTech booster dose showed a lower immune response against Omicron compared to other variants.

       In the same presser, Khairy had announced that Malaysia recorded another two Omicron infections on Dec 31 last year, bringing the total number of confirmed Omicron infections in the country to 64.

       Out of the total number of cases, 63 were imported and one is a local infection.