In a written reply to Lim Lip Eng (PH-Kepong), the health ministry said as of Feb 18, 2022, bookings had been placed for 88.1 million vaccine doses.

“As we are bound by non-disclosure agreements with vaccine suppliers, we cannot reveal the details of the (purchase) contract, including the prices of the vaccines.

“We, however, disclosed the costs of acquiring each vaccine during the Public Accounts Committee proceedings on Aug 2, 2021,” the ministry said.

Lim had asked the government for a breakdown on how much they had spent on vaccines, needles, and syringes since 2020.

In its reply, the ministry said 51.4 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine had been ordered, followed by Sinovac (20.4 million), AstraZeneca (12.8 million), and CanSino (3.5 million).

The ministry added that a sum of RM36.83 million had been spent on 89 million units of low dead volume (LDV) syringes and needles.

“We also received a contribution of 2.7 million LDV syringes and needles worth RM891,000.”

The government allocated a total of RM32.5 billion under Budget 2022 for the health ministry. The allocation was the second largest after the education ministry.

Apart from the RM32.5 billion, another RM4 billion will be set aside for Covid-19, the ministry added.