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POLICY BRIEF

Suan Ee Ong, Winnie Ong, Azrul Mohd Khalib
We hereby recommend that Malaysia’s COVID-19 immunisation programme target sub-populations who are at highest risk of a) COVID-19 infection, and b) progression to severe disease and death from COVID-19 infection, as follows:

  • Persons aged 60 and over and those living with certain pre-existing medical conditions (e.g. cancer, chronic kidney disease, heart disease)
  • Persons living in settings with increased risk of COVID-19 transmission, namely prisons, immigration detention facilities, and factory dormitories
  • Persons working in the essential services sectors, including health and social care, law enforcement, cleaning and sanitation, and water, food, and electricity

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted both lives and livelihoods across the globe. COVID-19 vaccines may accelerate countries and societies’ return to a degree of normalcy. However, rapid deployment of a population-wide vaccination strategy appears infeasible due to resource limitations and vaccine logistics challenges.

Although clinical trials have demonstrated their effectiveness, COVID-19 vaccines remain new, limited in availability, and resource-intensive from production and distribution perspectives. The government must therefore optimise the distribution of initial doses through a stratified approach.

Against this backdrop, this policy brief presents high-risk populations in Malaysia who should be prioritised for COVID-19 vaccination in 2021.