KUALA LUMPUR, July 16 (CNA) - Malaysia's health ministry said on Friday (Jul 16) it has granted conditional approval for emergency use to the COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by China's Sinopharm.

The Sinopharm vaccine in Malaysia was registered by pharmaceutical company Duopharma, director-general of health Noor Hisham Abdullah said in a statement.

Duopharma had previously announced a deal to supply the Malaysian government with 6.4 million doses of the Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine.

The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the health ministry's announcement on Sinopharm.

The approval come a day after Malaysia's health ministry said that it would stop administering the COVID-19 vaccine produced by China's Sinovac once its supplies end, as it has a sufficient number of other vaccines for its programme.

Malaysia started its national COVID-19 immunisation programme on Feb 24. It has administered a total of 12,647,558 doses of COVID-19 vaccines as of Thursday, with more than 4 million people - or 12.3 per cent of the population - fully vaccinated so far.

Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said on Thursday that the government is considering the possibility of giving some "leeway" to people who have completed the full COVID-19 vaccination regimen, including allowing them to dine in at restaurants and to travel between states.

Malaysia reported 13,215 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, setting a record for the third consecutive day. To date, authorities have reported about 880,000 cases and more than 6,600 deaths.