A medical worker gets vaccinated against COVID-19 in Sungai Buloh town of Malaysia on March 2, 2021 (Photo: AFP/VNA) The ordinance will enable thegovernment to use the 17.4 billion MYR (4.23 billion USD) under the nationaltrust fund to secure vaccines "for an epidemic of any infectiondisease", according to the law published in the federal gazette.
The trust fund, which takescontributions from state energy company Petronas and others involved inpetroleum exploitation, was set up to support infrastructure and otherdevelopment and provide federal loans to Malaysia's states.
In January, King Al-Sultan Abdullahdeclared a nationwide state of emergency to curb the spread of COVID-19, givingthe government more power to enact temporary laws without parliamentaryapproval.
Malaysian Prime Minister MuhyiddinYassin in March nearly doubled the country's COVID-19 immunisation budget to 5billion MYR with a view to helping achieve the government's target of inoculating80 percent of the country's 32 million population by December.
As of April 20, nearly 750,000people in Malaysia had been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus disease whileabout 462,000 others are awaiting their second shots.
With nearly 382,000 cases, Malaysiahas the third highest number of COVID-19 infections in Southeast Asia,following Indonesia and the Philippines./.
VNA
