268,000 doses of AstraZeneca (AZ) COVID-19 vaccine were assigned to the public through a special registration session on 2 May. All of the doses were then fully reserved in less than four hours although there were a group of people that ended up on the waiting list either by personal choice, miscalculated judgement or simply registered late.
According to the confirmation screen, those who ended up in the WL have to wait for a call from the Vaccine Administration Centre (PPV) to get their AZ vaccine. As it turns out, there is more to it than just a simple phone call.
During today’s weekly media briefing session by the COVID-19 Immunisation Task Force, Minister Khairy Jamaluddin who is the coordinator for the National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) has provided a better picture regarding the list which covers around 60,000 people.
Minister Khairy said that PPVs are provided with a list of individuals under the waiting list on a daily basis. At the same time, these individuals would then receive a notification on MySejahtera (MySJ) to indicate that they have been listed on the waiting list. That being said, they should not make their way immediately to PPV centres even after receiving the notification.
This is because they still have to wait for a PPV staff to call and ask them to come despite receiving the notification through MySJ. Minister Khairy insists that PPV centres will not entertain any walk-in individuals although he did say that vaccine vials that have already been opened will be administered to those who were present at the centres.
We have tried to ask for further clarification from The Special Committee On The COVID-19 Supply (JKJAV) via Twitter but our tweet was left unanswered. However, JKJAV did confirm that PPVs have already begun making calls to individuals under the waiting list.
On another hand, Minister Khairy also said that for individuals who were not able to make their way to the PPV after being summoned by the staff, their place in the mainstream PICK distribution is still intact. This means they will eventually get vaccinated although right now, there is a high possibility that Phase 3 of PICK might be derailed from its original schedule due to supply constraints.
In the same media conference, Minister Khairy has also said that the second batch of AZ vaccine which was previously said to be around one million doses will arrive later this month. They will be then followed by another 615,120 doses in early June via the global COVAX facility.
It has also been previously noted that those who are on the waiting list would be prioritised to receive their AZ vaccine through these future shipments. There are also plans to distribute the vaccine to other parts of Malaysia alongside another registration session but none of these were covered during today’s media conference.
At the moment, 19,178 out of 268,000 doses have been administered so far through PPV WTC KL, UM, and UKM since 5 May. All in all, there are still a lot more AZ vaccines to be distributed by JKJAV/CITF, so expect to hear more updates from the authorities along the way.
(Source: MOSTI / Facebook. Additional image: Jin Ni / WHO )
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