Gov’t Will Pay Compensation If You Suffer From Severe Reactions From COVID-19 Vaccines

By Ammar Haziq  •  22 Mar 2021 in News

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The government has announced that it has established a compensation fund to provide financial assistance for Malaysian and non-Malaysian Covid-19 vaccine recipients who suffer severe reactions.

Health Minister Adham Baba said under the new fund, RM50,000 aid will be given if individuals require long periods of hospitalisation due to vaccine effects, or RM500,000 for permanent disability or death, CNA reported.

He said as of 18 March, health authorities had recorded 20 instances of adverse reactions to vaccinations with symptoms from itching to shortness of breath and palpitations. The minister also said that there has been no death related to the vaccine, although he did not specify which type of vaccine he was referring to.

The vaccine rollout began on 23 February using the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, and has since started administering China’s Sinovac Biotech on 18 March.

As of now, nearly 430,000 frontline workers have been vaccinated with the majority of them having taken the first of two jabs of vaccine developed by US company Pfizer and German’s BioNTech.

Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin also announced last week that the government will almost double its COVID-19 immunisation budget to RM5 billion.

This is to speed up the target of vaccinating 80 per cent of Malaysia’s 32 million population by December instead of February 2022.