KUALA LUMPUR, May 27 — After a problematic third public registration for the AstraZeneca vaccine yesterday, Khairy Jamaluddin said it will be reincorporated into the main National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK).
The PICK coordinating minister said the overwhelming demand for the AstraZeneca vaccine showed there was no longer hesitancy towards it, leading to the decision to terminate the opt-in scheme that was introduced after previous concerns with the vaccine led to some dropping out.
“We’re taking the online option off the table. There’s only so many days of heart attacks I can endure also,” Khairy told reporters during an online press conference today when asked if the government still planned to conduct more online registrations for vaccines after yesterday’s debacle.
“I know the users’ experience made them disappointed due to the system’s failure to handle the high numbers and I apologise for that.”
Khairy also said that the MySejahtera app was being updated and could include a feature that would allow recipients to indicate their preference for the type of vaccine they would get.
He said this was being considered as Malaysia was on track to receive significant shipments of various vaccines in June and July.
Khairy explained that the government was seeking to make the vaccination as frictionless as possible in order to get Malaysian residents vaccinated as quickly as possible.
“On the choice of vaccines, we’re working out the method in which we would do this. It will be done on MySejahtera and the website. I believe this is cleaner and encourages people to use the app.
“We will be looking at how you choose your appointments, place, date as well as vaccine. If anything, we want to make the process as easy as possible for people and I’ll probably announce it in the next couple of weeks,” he added.
