KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 30 — The excess of Covid-19 vaccine shots that ended up being unused until their expiry was due to low take-up in particularly booster doses, the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said.

In a report released today, it said the low take-up was due to the booster dose being acquired on a voluntary basis and fear of vaccine side effects due to the spreading of misinformation and disinformation.

"Vaccine supplies were not received according to schedule due to high global demands,” the PAC said in its report.

Other factors that led to the low take-up included the booster shot incentive was the fact that it was only offered to those who have completed two primer doses before May 1, 2022; perception among the society that booster shots were not important and Covid-19 cases that were decreasing.

The PAC reported the expiry of 8.5 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines as of June 15, 2023, worth RM505 million.

The report was related to the Covid-19 pandemic, specifically on expired vaccines, unusable ventilators and a surplus of personal protective equipment (PPE) under the Health Ministry.

The PAC said in its report that out of 83.3 million doses projected vaccine requirement, a total of 72.8 million doses of vaccine have been administered, which is 88 per cent of the projected doses.

In March the Health Ministry said over eight million doses of various Covid-19 vaccines had expiry dates between February and September.

In June the Health Ministry said it will receive 2.7 million doses of the new generation (bivalent) Covid-19 vaccines as a replacement for the expired stock that were kept by the Ministry.

Deputy Health Ministry Lukanisman Awang Sauni reportedly said although Malaysia was able to replace the vaccines, according to data obtained, only 2.5 per cent of the population have taken the second booster shot, therefore the Health Ministry may need to destroy the expired vaccines.

He also reportedly said that from December 2020 to April 30, 2023, the government spent RM5.885 billion of which RM5.348 billion were through the Health Ministry while another RM537.5 million was spend through the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation for the implementation of PICK (National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme) including PICKids.