Malaysia has procured more vaccines and aims to accelerate inoculations starting next month, a cabinet minister has said, as the government struggles to contain a worsening coronavirus crisis.

Science Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said the government has bought an additional 12.8 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine, bringing the total to 44.8m doses, enough to cover 70 per cent of Malaysia’s population.

Over 11m people, or about a third of the population, have registered for vaccinations but only 1.7m have received at least one dose, according to an AP report.