KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia has given conditional approval for a COVID-19 vaccine made by China's Sinovac to be used on young people aged between 12 and 17, its health ministry said on Friday.

Teenagers younger than 18 began receiving COVID-19 doses last month, after vaccinations of more than 80% of adults were completed in one of Southeast Asia's fastest vaccine rollouts that has covered 62% of a population of 32 million.

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In a statement, the health ministry said Malaysia's drugs regulator advised priority for Sinovac's product among teenagers without co-morbidities or allergy problems, or otherwise deemed unsuitable for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

In July, Malaysia said it would stop giving the Sinovac shot when supplies ran out, as it had enough of other vaccines for the national campaign.

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Malaysia has continued to receive additional shipments, however. This week, the foreign ministry said China had agreed to donate a million doses of the Sinovac vaccine, following a donation of 500,000 in July. (Reporting by Rozanna Latiff; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)