KUALA LUMPUR, May 27 — The much touted RM70 million is not the actual amount the government spent on developing the Covid-19 Vaccine Supply Access Guarantee Special Committee (JKJAV) website, federal minister Khairy Jamaluddin said today.

The science, technology and innovation minister who is also in charge of coordinating the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (NIP) clarified that the sum was the "ceiling” set aside by the government that encompasses the development and management of several other health systems.

"This would include the management and monitoring of the NIPs progress, development of a daily reporting dashboard for NIP, an integration system to connect the data collected by MySejahtera and systems readily available at the Health Ministry and the development of vaccine registration portal,” he said in an online news conference.

Khairy said the RM70 million would also cover registration and vaccination verification system as well as the development of Google Maps services in the MySejahtera application, the development of a genomic surveillance and immunisation surveillance systems and the acquisition of a mobile queue management system for the government’s vaccination centres (PPVs).

He also listed the "integration of the digital passport system in MySejahtera, logistics management and vaccine delivery network system, call centres, the MyVac system for volunteer mobilisation management and SMS delivery and phone calls for vaccination reminders several times before vaccination date”.

"So, the RM70 million is not just for the website only but encompasses everything that I have listed.

"And the RM70 million is only a ceiling. It is not the actual number spent which will be spent by the government,” he said.

The government had come under flak after thousands of Malaysians faced difficulty trying to log in on the JKJAV website yesterday to register for the third round of the voluntary AztraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine.

Social media has been rife with angry users demanding the minister explain the whopping amount just for the JKJAV website.