AFTER the recent disastrous AstraZeneca (AZ) vaccine registration programme, Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin received a lot of heat over the RM70 million allocated for data integration and scheduling system under the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (NCIP).
Today, he announced that the RM70 million was just the “ceiling” and not used solely for the website, but included management and monitoring of NCIP’s progress, data integration among health systems, genomic surveillance, immunisation surveillance, digital passport for MySejahtera, and vaccine delivery logistics, among others.
While this sounds impressive, I would like to share my experience as an elected representative who has been promoting and registering the public for vaccination.
From the get-go, the website has been problematic. My office started registering senior citizens and their family members during our Jom Shopping Skim Mesra Usia Emas voucher distribution programme in early March. However, there was no function on the website to check on their status. We had cases of senior citizens accidentally deleting the SMS confirming their registration, and no way to check back and reassure them that they were in queue.
To remedy this, we created our own vaccination card for those who registered at our office and outreach programmes, so that they would, in the very least, be assured that they had registered. It was only a month later (April) that the checking function was put up.
The AZ registration problems have been well documented – site crashes all three times, inability to select states, and the absence of confirmation messages, leaving users in the dark as to whether their attempts were successful – netizens have discovered that, apparently, the website is being run on the free version of Cloudflare, which makes its API unable to handle the high surge of traffic.
This is unacceptable. Clearly, they should have anticipated and prepared for the surge, like Lazada and Shopee would in a 5.5 sale. Cloudflare has since reached out with their solution: Project Fair Shot.
And then there are the sudden vaccine appointment changes. What is more worrying: there have been cases of the public not registering for AZ but getting slots anyway. A constituent of mine decided early on to stick with PICK and specifically not register for AZ, but late last night received a notification that she had received an slot in July.
We have also frequently received reports from the public that calls to the hotline and emails to the helpdesk have gone unanswered.
All of the above demand that the minister provide full disclosure into the tender details for the RM70 million allocation, with these questions:
– Who is the vendor, project manager and lead tech? Who is the developer? What are all these parties’ credentials and competencies?
– How much of the RM70 million allocation has been spent?
– What is contained within the tender scope, such as terms of reference and deployment requirements?
– Was there testing done prior to the AZ opt-in strategy to ensure the website could handle traffic surges?
– Is the Special Committee on Covid-19 Vaccine Supply Access Guarantee going to take up Cloudflare’s offer to use Project Fair Shot and avoid any more messes going forward?
– Why are the hotline and email helpdesks not responding to the public? How many personnel have been deployed for this task?
Vaccines are a lifesaving right. Regardless of the RM70 million being a ceiling, the people deserve answers. Reveal the website tender details now. – The Vibes, May 28, 2021
Lim Yi Wei is Kg Tunku rep
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