KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 11 — "Health issues” are keeping some 2,286 university students from receiving the Covid-19 vaccine, Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Noraini Ahmad told the Dewan Rakyat today.

She said the unvaccinated numbers formed 0.2 per cent of the student population in local institutions of higher learning, based on the latest information available as of October 8.

"Actually, 2,286 students or 0.2 per cent have health issues. Therefore, they could not be vaccinated,” she said in response to Ledang MP Syed Ibrahim Syed Noh who asked for updates on students who want to go back to their campuses but have yet to be vaccinated, as well as those challenging the vaccine mandate in court.

He also asked Noraini to clarify accusations that students who are not vaccinated are being threatened.

The minister did not elaborate on the health issues that prevented the students from getting vaccinated against Covid-19 nor respond to his second question.

She said that the institutions have been asked to help the unvaccinated students so their studies are not disrupted.

Instead, Noraini said that in "critical situations” whereby the physical attendance of both the unvaccinated academic staff as well as students cannot be avoided, stricter movement control measures will be imposed, such as the mandatory RT-PCR test three days before presence in campus and periodical Covid-19 self-tests.

She had earlier said that as of October 1, a total of 951,739 university students (83 per cent) have completed their vaccination while 117,721 staff at universities (90 per cent) have completed their doses.