Malaysia on Tuesday received the first batch of locally filled and finished doses of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Chinese biopharmaceutical company Sinovac Biotech.

The first batch of 290,480 doses manufactured by Pharmaniaga, Malaysia's leading pharmaceutical company, was handed over to Health Minister Adham Baba in a brief ceremony on Tuesday.

Pharmaniaga said the company had recently obtained a lot release approval for its filled and finished products from Malaysia's National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA), which allowed the vaccines to be distributed to Health Ministry designated health facilities.