The Ministry of Health (MOH) has given an update regarding reported incidents of COVID-19 vaccine recipients experiencing discrepancies of manufacturer information between their digital vaccination certificates and the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA) Lot Release certificates.
According to the ministry, mismatches of information occurred because of data overlaps between vaccine shipments that use the Global Trade International Number (GTIN) and those listed in the Vaccine Management System (VMS). The displayed vaccine information on MySejahtera is based on information provided by VMS.
Registered pharmaceutical products in Malaysia typically get only one registration number based on the product’s brand and where it was manufactured. However, COVID-19 vaccines procured through COVAX are given a single registration number even when they come from different facilities and manufacturers in order to ease the logistics during the pandemic, but this affected the data in VMS.
For those of you who have been living under a rock, COVAX is a worldwide initiative that aims to provide access to COVID-19 vaccines to countries with lesser resources and is subsidised by richer countries. COVAX has allocated 1,387,200 doses for Malaysia and has so far delivered 828,000 AstraZeneca doses.
Anyone that wants to know where your AZ vaccine originated from can be checked via https://t.co/JgYfapSSaP
Find your Batch no. from MySJ
For ABX6083 from Sweden. #cucukMyAZ pic.twitter.com/dsHLaskyXK
— Ken Wong Ⓐ (@wuen10ken) July 5, 2021
Referring to one of the reported affected batch numbers, ABX6083, the ministry explains that the NPRA Lot Release certificate is accurate in that it comes from Sweden. AstraZeneca doses procured through COVAX are given the same GTIN registration number as shots procured from South Korea in VMS, leading to the manufacturer mismatch in MySejahtera.
MOH is currently in the midst of updating the vaccine information for 100000 AstraZeneca vaccine recipients and expects the exercise to be finished before 30 October. The revised information should be automatically synchronised with MySejahtera and affected users can download the updated digital certificate after this date. The ministry also says that they are reviewing all vaccination data to make sure vaccine certificates are accurate.
(Source: MOH. Image: WHO/Twitter)
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