Malaysia has signed a deal to procure 6.4 million doses of AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine, and is in final talks with Chinese and Russian manufacturers to secure more, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin has said.

According to Reuters, the Southeast Asian country has already secured 12.8m doses from its deal with Pfizer-BioNTech signed last month, as well as from its participation in the global Covax facility, backed by the World Health Organisation.

“This means that we have secured vaccine supplies to cover 40 per cent (of the population),” Muhyiddin said in a televised address. Malaysia expects to buy enough supplies to inoculate 26.5m people, or more than 80pc of its people.