ASTRAZENECA VACCINE FULLY BOOKED BY VOLUNTEERS
Malaysia scheduled to receive one million more doses, says Khairy
IT took only slightly more than three hours for the public to snap up all 268,000 available slots for the voluntary AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine shots, which were opened for online registration yesterday.
Within the first few minutes of the registration being opened at noon, the website vaksincovid.gov.my was bombarded with massive traffic, causing its system to slow down immensely.
By 3.20pm, all available slots were taken up.
Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin, however, said those interested could register their names to be placed on the vaccination waiting list.
“All AZ (AstraZeneca) slots are fully booked. My apologies for the initial glitch and multiple refreshes.
“You can still click on the grey boxes to put yourself on a wait list for the next couple of hours. We will start pushing appointments to your MySejahtera or SMS soon,” he wrote on Twitter.
Khairy, who is also National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme coordinating minister, had earlier said Malaysia was scheduled to receive one million more doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine this month through the Covid-19 Vaccine Global Access (Covax) facility.
The government, he said, was working on expanding the bookings for the AstraZeneca vaccine to all states, except Sarawak as the state had declined the shots.
“We will expand the opt-in in other states (except Sarawak) and ensure that those without Internet access can also sign up.”
Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba thanked the public for their acceptance of the Covid-19 vaccines, including AstraZeneca, as it had helped accelerate the country’s immunisation drive.
“We extend our gratitude to the volunteers who have come forward in helping Malaysia achieve herd immunity.
“The positive response from the public (to AstraZeneca) is because they understand that the benefits outweigh the risks despite possible links to rare blood clot events with low blood platelets.
“Those who could not register this time can do so in the next batch,” he told the New Straits Times.
Dr Adham assured the public that the AstraZeneca vaccine had been proven to be safe and effective, and noted that blood clot incidents were very rare, with an average of only four cases per one million people globally.
Registration for the AstraZeneca vaccine was opened to 268,000 people in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor on a “first click, first served” basis via the vaksincovid.gov.my website.
Those who registered for the vaccine would be notified of the time of their appointment via the MySejahtera application, SMS or phone call.
The designated vaccination centres offering the Astra Zeneca shots in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor are the World Trade Centre Kuala Lumpur; Ideal Convention Centre Shah Alam; Dewan 1, Bangunan Peperiksaan, Universiti Malaya; and, Dewan Gemilang, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.