Malaysia Offers 2nd Booster To 50+ Years + Travellers!

Malaysia is now offering the 2nd booster dose to those who are 50 years or older, as well as people planning to travel overseas!

Here is what you need to know…

 

Earlier : Malaysia Gives 2nd Booster Dose To High-Risk Individuals!

Back in mid-April 2022, the Malaysia Ministry of Health (KKM) offered a second booster dose to high-risk individuals :

  • High-risk senior citizens aged 60 years and above, with co-morbidities like
    – diabetes
    – chronic lung disease
    – chronic renal disease, underlying dialysis
    – chronic liver disease
    – cerebrovascular disease
    – heart failure, ischaemic heart disease, cardiomyopathy
    – chronic neurological diseases
    – BMI of over 40
    – residents of long-term care facilities
  • Individuals who received the Sinovac or Sinopharm booster dose for travel purposes
  • Healthy senior citizens are advised to consult a doctor for second booster dose recommendation

Read more : Second Booster Dose Offered To High-Risk Individuals!

 

Now : Malaysia Gives 2nd Booster To 50+ Years + Travellers!

On 19 July 2022, the Malaysia Minister of Health, Khairy Jamaluddin, announced that the government will now offer the 2nd booster dose to :

  • individuals those who are 50 years and older, even if they do not have co-morbidities, and
  • individuals who are planning to travel overseas

The group in the 50-59 age bracket without any chronic diseases and anyone 50 and below who wants to travel overseas can receive second vaccine boosters.

As announced earlier, the second booster dose will continue to be offered to high-risk individuals living in long-term care facilities, adults 18 years and older with co-morbidities, and COVID-19 frontliners.

The second booster dose will be the Pfizer COMIRNATY vaccine, and it will be given :

  • at least 4-6 months after the first booster dose for senior citizens,
  • at least 3 months after recovery for senior citizens who had a COVID-19 infection,
  • and at least 1 month after the first booster dose for Sinovac / SInopharm recipients.

This second booster dose is optional, and is not compulsory. Your vaccination status will not change, whether you take the second booster dose or not.

You can either book your booster dose appointment on MySejahtera, or look for a nearby private healthcare facility offering a booster dose.

These booster doses are offered for FREE by the Malaysian government, as part of the PICK vaccination programme.

 

Why 2nd Booster Dose For Travellers Leaving Malaysia?

Even though many countries have opened up their economies, and even to travellers; the COVID-19 pandemic isn’t over.

Many countries are now facing spikes in COVID-19 cases, thanks to new Omicron subvariants that are highly contagious, and evade protection from both previous infections and vaccinations.

Thus, a second booster dose before travelling overseas will offer a short  but useful boost in antibodies that could protect travellers as they fly out of Malaysia into other countries.

This is particularly important for those who received the Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines. Both Chinese vaccines offer markedly lower protection, which quickly wane over a matter of weeks.

A Yale University study, for example, showed that Sinovac vaccine recipients will require TWO Pfizer booster doses, to adequately protect against the Omicron variant.

Therefore, if you received Sinovac / Sinopharm vaccine earlier, I highly recommend that you get the booster doses, even if you are not planning to travel overseas.

Read more : Why Sinovac recipients may need TWO Pfizer booster doses!

There is also a more practical consideration for people travelling overseas – some countries in Europe do not recognise the Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines, both as a primary series vaccine or a booster dose.

Therefore, they will be allowed to obtain a second booster dose, at least one month after receiving their first booster dose.

 

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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

 

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