Conditional approval for AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine, manufactured by Siam Bioscience Co in Thailand, was granted by Malaysian Health Officials on Friday.

The vaccine supply obtained from Thailand is likely to speed up the implementation of Malaysia’s national vaccination program, according to Noor Hisham Abdullah, director-general of the Health Ministry.

After allegations of probable ties to extremely uncommon blood clots, the government placed the AstraZeneca vaccine in a separate optional program.
But the vaccine was brought back into the national immunization programme last week after hundreds of thousands of people scrambled to get the shot.

Malaysia has purchased 12.8 million doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine, half through the COVAX facility and the remainder directly from the drug-maker.

The first shipment of 610,000 doses from Thailand is scheduled for this month, followed by 410,000 doses in July and 1.2 million doses between August and September, the government had said previously.