Malaysia said on Tuesday it had signed a deal to purchase 12 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine developed by Chinese bio-pharmaceutical company Sinovac.

The purchase has been made along with another 6.4 million doses of vaccine produced by Russia's Gamaleya Research Institute, Malaysia's Health Ministry said.

Both deals were made through two Malaysian pharmaceutical firms, namely Duopharma and Pharmaniaga. 

The Chinese vaccine will be supplied in batches from April this year by Pharmaniaga, the ministry said.

The Southeast Asian nation, now with over 190,000 confirmed cases, has also procured Pfizer/BioNTech and AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccines.

A total of 700 people have lost their lives so far due to the disease in the Malaysia.