KUCHING, May 26: The Covid-19 Vaccine Supply Access Guarantee Special Committee (JKJAV) should have been more prepared to cater for the surge in online traffic for AstraZeneca (AZ) vaccine registration especially when it is opened up for adults 18 years and above today.
Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii viewed that the Committee should have decentralised the registration system to allow involved states to open up their own registration on different days if they have anticipated that the system was not able to cope with the nationwide traffic at one time.
“This is not the first time they are dealing with such an issue and should have planned better to minimise such glitches for the convenience of the public.
“While I am happy there is an overwhelming response towards opting in for the AZ, which shows people’s eagerness to get vaccinated, but it also shows people’s frustration at how slow the current vaccination rate is, and how the PN (Perikatan National) government does not seem to learn from past mistakes,” he pointed out in a statement.
Frustration and anger were building up among Malaysians including Sarawakians since noon today after the registration website encountered technical problems, preventing many from successfully securing a slot for the AZ vaccine after having spent an entire afternoon trying to go through the registration process.
Netizens flocked to social media platforms to complain and voice their anger and dissatisfaction over the various system failures which were alleged to have cost RM70 million to be developed.
Dr Yii of the Democratic Action Party (DAP) pointed out that the Committee should have reserved a certain quota based on population and infectivity rate of the particular state before opening up registration for involved states on different dates.
“What is more frustrating is those who have managed to convince those hesitates to sign up, but to be eventually let down by the system.
“We were even informed that many of the elderly people who have registered for the second round of this programme have not received their confirmation message even after 48 hours as indicated in the system. This issue has to be properly addressed,” he added.
Dr Yii thus urged the Federal government or JKJAV to learn from their mistakes and be proactive in order to instill public confidence in the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (NCIP).
Meanwhile, despite the technical glitches, the one million available slots for this second round of AZ registration were all snapped up in less than an hour, according to national news reports.
The vaccination registrations to opt-in for the AZ vaccine opened on May 23-25 for Malaysians above 60 years old in Johor, Selangor, Penang, Kuala Lumpur and Sarawak.
With 228,000 senior citizens having signed up for the prioritised vaccines slots over the three-days period, the excess vaccine slots were then opened up today for adults below 60.
Vaccine Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said that over a million doses of the vaccine were procured for this programme. — DayakDaily
