Vaccine registration system to be improved, deputy minister says after AstraZeneca hitch

The government says it will make improvements to the vaccine registration system so that the goal of achieving group or herd immunity under the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme before the end of this year succeeds.

Deputy Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Ahmad Amzad Hashim said the registration to access the one million slots of AstraZeneca vaccine offered yesterday was highly unusual, as more than a million people had accessed the system.

“Because of that, the system, which had gone through a ‘stress test’ before without any problems, became congested and experienced a disruption.

“However, the government accepts all remarks and suggestions from various parties on this aspect of the smooth registration. Similarly, the MySejahtera module still needs to be continuously improved,” he said in a statement on his Facebook account last night.

Yesterday, Malaysians expressed their frustration on various social media platforms over their failure to access the AstraZeneca vaccine slots despite having tried to get into the system earlier.

Amzad, who is also Kuala Terengganu MP, said the government had decided to offer the AstraZeneca vaccine to anyone over the age of 18, following the initial rejection by many.

Currently, AstraZeneca vaccine bookings are only open to residents in Johor, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Sarawak and Selangor.