KUALA LUMPUR, March 21 — The Ministry of Health (MOH) has approved CanSino’s single-dose Convidecia Covid-19 vaccine to be used as a heterologous booster.

The MOH, in a statement on its website today, said application for the CanSino-type booster dose would be available via MySejahtera soon.

It also said that those who took the Sinovac or Cansino Bio vaccine primer doses could take the vaccine as a booster dose.

"The eligibility period for taking this dose after the primer dose is at least three months,” the statement added.

Meanwhile, Solution Group Bhd (SGB) deputy group managing director Datuk Dr Mohd Nazlee Kamal said the MOH approval would give Malaysians more options when it came to vaccines for booster shots.

It’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Solution Biologics Sdn Bhd, is the Asean manufacturing partner for the Convidecia vaccine by CanSino Biologics Inc.

Mohd Nazlee said the approval meant that Convidecia could now help in the government’s push for high booster coverage in the fight against the Omicron variant of the virus, especially among vulnerable groups.

"The use of a booster shot from a different vaccine from the previous administered vaccine is also more effective with a higher immune response as compared to using the same vaccine for booster shots,” he said. — Bernama