KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 8 — The government must explain if Malaysia was receiving Covid-19 vaccines after other nations due to logistics issues or commercial concerns, Kepong MP Lim Lip Eng said.

In a statement, Lim said Putrajaya must tell the country why Malaysia still has not received the vaccines when others such as Bangladesh were already receiving shipments.

He argued that reasons such as the lack of ultra-cold storage needed from some of the vaccines was untenable when other countries face the same issue.

"Whereas Bangladesh, which purchased 30 million doses of the Covishield vaccine from the Serum Institute of India, has already received the first delivery of 5 million doses.

"Two million doses of Covishield were also delivered as a gift from India, while China has also given millions of doses to countries such as Brazil and Turkey, but we hardly hear any such offers from Pfizer,” Lim said in the statement.

Lim added that prior to Malaysia’s purchase of Pfizer’s vaccine, China Foreign Minister Wang Yi had visited both Indonesia and Malaysia to offer his country’s vaccines at below US$20 (RM81) per dose. 

While Indonesia has since received their vaccines Malaysia still has not.

Lim also noted that such matters would typically have been raised for discussion in Parliament, which was now possible as all legislatures in the country have been suspended under the Emergency.