Malaysia

PAS tweet encouraging opt-ins for Covid-19 jabs slammed

Netizens doubly furious as post exacerbates frustration around voluntary bookings for AstraZeneca shots

Updated 5 years ago · Published on 26 May 2021 5:34PM

PAS tweet encouraging opt-ins for Covid-19 jabs slammed
The poster encouraging Malaysians to sign up for the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine that was tweeted out by the PAS Youth wing today, but which ended up only stoking up anger among social media users. – PAS Twitter pic, May 26, 2021

by G. Surach

KUALA LUMPUR – Attempts by PAS to promote the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine opt-in programme backfired spectacularly today, after its tweet was lambasted for being a case of too little, too late.

In a Tweet at around 3.30pm, the Islamist party opted to drive the message through the party’s Youth wing.

Despite the well-meaning message, netizens were furious as today’s opt-in registration for the AstraZeneca vaccine was closed by 1.23pm after it was opened for an hour.

Twitter user @MBolhassan pointed out that the party had also misspelt Sarawak as Serawak.

“Bagus la mengeja Sarawak pun salah jd Serawak… (Good job misspelling Sarawak as Serawak),” he tweeted.

The user also tweeted that the party’s tweet was late as registrations had already been closed by then.

“Btw PAS kau dah lambat AZ dah tutup pun..ni nak nyakit hati rakyat ke? (Are you trying to anger the rakyat ?)”.

Another Twitter user @sarfabian tweeted that the party might still be using dial-up connection for their Internet access.

At press time, PAS’ tweet, which has yet to be removed, gathered more than 1,200 retweets and 269 comments.

The Covid-19 Vaccine Supply Access Guarantee Special Committee (JKJAV) website today said bookings for the AstraZeneca jab will be opened at 12.15pm instead of noon.

“The AstraZeneca vaccine booking page is still being updated. You can begin to book your slots from 12.15pm. Apologies for the inconvenience,” tweeted JKJAV at 12.01pm.

At 12.18pm, the option to make an appointment was removed from the portal.

Two minutes later, the option reappeared.

However, there are still complaints of people being unable to choose the states where they or their codependent would be able to get their jabs; namely Johor, Penang, Sarawak, Selangor and Kuala Lumpur.

The booking window should have been opened at 12pm, as announced by the Health Ministry and vaccination drive coordinating minister Khairy Jamaluddin.

Scores of Malaysians have taken to social media to air their frustration over the delay, with many slamming the government for not being able to get it right the third time around.

The majority of social media users pointed out glitches on the registration form preventing them from clicking on states to choose their vaccination centres – an issue that occurred when registration opened exclusively for those over-60s on Sunday.

Adding to soaring public frustration, some users said their MySejahtera app went “down” or displayed a notice saying it was undergoing maintenance. The new opt-in form has a section for users to fill up their MySejahtera ID number.

At 12.40pm, MySejahtera tweeted: “Dear users, we are facing very high traffic at MySejahtera right now. Some of you may not be able to access certain functions. Please log in again later as the traffic clears. Thank you.”

By 1.23pm, the JKJAV site said all slots had been filled and registrations closed.

The first round of the AstraZeneca opt-in programme that opened on May 2 saw some 268,000 doses snapped up in under four hours. – The Vibes, May 26, 2021

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