The latest data is a boost to the Chinese firm, whose COVID-19 vaccine has been under growing scrutiny over its effectiveness following reports of infections among healthcare workers fully immunized with the Sinovac shot in Indonesia and Thailand.

The study, conducted by the Malaysian government, found that 0.011 percent of about 7.2 million recipients of the Sinovac shot required treatment in intensive care units (ICU) for COVID-19 infections, health officials told reporters on Thursday.

By contrast, 0.002 percent of about 6.5 million recipients of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine needed ICU treatment for COVID-19 infections, while 0.001 percent of 744,958 recipients of the AstraZeneca shot required similar treatment.

Kalaiarasu Peariasamy, a director at the Institute for Clinical Research that conducted the study along with a national COVID-19 taskforce, said vaccinations - regardless of the brand - have reduced the risk of admission to intensive care by 83% and lowered the risk of death by 88 percent based on a smaller study involving about 1.26 million people.

"The breakthrough rate for intensive care unit admission is extremely low," he said, adding overall ICU admissions among fully vaccinated individuals stood at 0.0066 percent.

Mortality rate of the fully vaccinated people was also low at 0.01 percent and the majority of them were either above 60 years of age or with comorbidities.

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