THE government must start doing something proactive to get more people to sign up for their Covid-19 vaccination instead of lamenting on the poor response, said Rajiv Rishyakaran. 

For starters, the Bukit Gasing rep said, the government must allow the people to pick and choose their appointment time for the jabs instead of waiting for the government to start the process. 

He was responding to Coordinating Minister for the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme Khairy Jamaluddin’s remarks that more than half of those eligible for vaccination under Phase 2 had failed to respond for their appointment. 

“Of the 31,776 appointments sent out through the MySejahtera application and SMS, he (Khairy) said, 18,215 did not respond, 13,218 confirmed their appointment dates, and 343 declined,” he said in a statement. 

Rajiv said that as the country enters phase 2, the low response rates towards these appointment dates would delay the progress in having 70% of the population required to reach herd immunity. 

“Keeping in mind that achieving herd immunity is a race against time. 

“Clearly the current method of merely ‘registering your interest’ in vaccination and setting the appointment dates separately later by SMS or push notification is failing miserably. 

“All the efforts by various parties to register people for vaccination at the markets and other public areas is coming to a waste.” 

He said that rather than just register their interest, Khairy must allow people to book in their specific time and date slot. 

“It’s time to take this seriously if we want to achieve herd immunity as soon as possible! 

“I have made several statements in regards of how the process can be made far more efficient if the vaccination venues are known upfront, and participants can choose their date and time slot accordingly, the way we already do for most appointment systems, including in various government agencies.” 

Rajiv said that after all, MySejahtera was a location based app and should be able to indicate the nearest available clinic or vaccination centre for the appointment to be made. 

“In fact, the Health Ministry already has in place such an appointment system when it comes to making appointments to see a doctor or even just to collect medicine in our local health clinic as well as several private clinics via qmed.asia/booking. 

“It is baffling that the government will not use readily available pieces of technology to smoothen the process.” 

He added that Khairy was busy crying out loud that there are low responses instead of taking the proactive move to improve the registration process.

“Khairy said those who declined their first appointment date will then receive a second appointment date.

“How long will this cycle of people declining and a new date be proposed will go on? This will not only further strain the healthcare system but lengthen the waiting for people in different phases.” 

Rajiv said that not only will it increase the registration rate but the process of setting up these appointments will be significantly easier with this technical change. 

“It would be almost like buying movie tickets. I call upon the Covid-19 Vaccine Supply Access Guarantee Special Committee to make this tweak in the registration process that will benefit everyone involved.” – April 14, 2021.