THE opt-in programme for AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccination will be expanded to other parts of the country, following overwhelming response from its rollout in the Klang Valley yesterday, said Khairy Jamaluddin. 

“Based on the success of the bookings yesterday, we will be rolling this out to other parts of the country,” the coordinating minister for the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (NIP) said at his weekly press conference in which he presented updates on the country’s vaccination drive. 

In expanding the voluntary programme, the government will take into account those who have limited or no internet access and are unable to access the registration website. 

“(Yesterday was) just the first batch of AstraZeneca. So, we wanted to try and see whether or not there is demand and we wanted to do it as quickly as possible. 

“Going forward, we will take into account people who are unable to access the website and we will reach out through our community clinics to ensure that we can offer this on a voluntary basis to people who may not have access,” he said. 

Yesterday, registration for the 268,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine was filled within hours after the online booking system went live at noon.

Reservations were accepted via the vaksincovid.gov.my website on a first-come, first-served basis, for those in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor, aged 18 years old and above.

Some have said labelled this as “vaccine inequity”, Khairy said, denying any such intention on the government’s part.

The science, technology and innovation minister admitted shortcomings in the first round of the voluntary bookings as the government wanted to gauge demand for the AstraZeneca vaccine, after public hesitancy following news of rare cases of blood clotting in a very small percentage of recipients in Europe.

“The whole reason to have opt-in for AstraZeneca vaccine was due to the vaccine hesitancy towards this particular brand of vaccine. 

“This was seen in 8,000 cancellations of vaccination registrations in MySejahtera when we announced the use of AstraZeneca under the mainstream NIP.

“The numbers of cancellations were rising and this resulted in the decision that we should carve out the AstraZeneca vaccine from the mainstream NIP and to make it an opt-in instead. 

“After we (made it a voluntary opt-in programme) about 80% of people who (initially) cancelled their registrations on MySejahtera, re-registered for their vaccination appointments, and this is data we have showing how there was vaccine hesitancy,” he said. 

Khairy today also said that private clinics will be roped in for the voluntary Covid-19 vaccination drive using the AstraZeneca vaccine so as to push vaccine utilisation up to 80%. 

He also said that some 1.1 million doses of AstraZeneca will be arriving this month from the Covid-19 Vaccine Global Access or Covax facility. 

He added that 610,000 doses will be arriving from AstraZeneca, another 410,000 doses in June, and 1.2 million doses in August and September.

Recently, Sarawak Local Government and Housing Minister Dr Sim Jui Hian rejected the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine in the state. – May 3, 2021.