Malaysia said it was talking with Pfizer and other companies to secure more Covid-19 vaccine doses to cover 83 per cent of its population, and is drawing up plans to arrange ultra-cold storage in its tropical heat, reports Reuters.

The Southeast Asian nation says it has so far got enough doses to inoculate 40pc of its 32 million people, and has promised to spend $500 million to buy enough vaccines.

The government, which has struck a deal to buy 12.8 million doses of US drugmaker Pfizer-BioNTech’s shot, said it was in talks for an option to buy more doses to cover another fifth of the population.

Malaysia is also in final talks to secure a total of 23.9 million doses from Chinese manufacturers Sinovac Biotech Ltd and CanSino Biologics, and from Russia’s Gamaleya Institute, the maker of the Sputnik V vaccine, Science Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said.

It will secure additional AstraZeneca vaccines under the global COVAX facility, and has begun talks with Moderna and Johnson & Johnson as a buffer, the minister added.