[UPDATED] AstraZeneca jab no longer opt-in, now part of national vaccination drive: KJ

KUALA LUMPUR – Following yesterday’s registration fiasco, the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine will no longer be an opt-in programme, but included in the national immunisation drive, said Khairy Jamaluddin.

However, this does not affect those who have opted in previously, including individuals who signed up yesterday. Only the next AstraZeneca shipment will be included in the mainstream programme.

The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme coordinating minister, in a press conference today, said the government is reviewing the possibility of allowing people to choose the jab they want via MySejahtera, which will be upgraded soon.

“I apologise to all those who had issues accessing the vaccine registration website yesterday,” he said, adding that “it could have been much, much better executed”.

“The user experience (yesterday) left many disappointed as a result of the system’s failure to efficiently process extremely high demand.”

He reiterated that the AstraZeneca opt-in programme was rolled out after taking into account public hesitancy following reports on the jab potentially causing blood clots, though the risk is minuscule.

The science, technology and innovation minister said Putrajaya has learnt a lot from issues with the website’s opt-in registration, adding that it will be a better user experience on MySejahtera.

He jokingly said: “There’s only so much heart attack I can take (referring to problems with the opt-in registration system).”

Once MySejahtera has been upgraded over the next “couple of weeks”, the public will be able to choose their appointments – including the venue, date and vaccine type.

Khairy promised to make the process as easy as possible.

Responding to public outcry that it is impossible for 956,609 doses to be snapped up in an hour, he said the appointment confirmations being pushed out via MySejahtera since last night will be the proof required.

On complaints that individuals who did not register for the AstraZeneca jab have found themselves on the appointment list in MySejahtera, he said there is a possibility that a third party registered for them without their consent.

We are still investigating these cases, where they didn’t register, but they received an AstraZeneca appointment. This should not have taken place; technically, it can’t take place. Our hypothesis is that people were registered without their consent. 

“We were told that there were several organisations who did mass bookings for other people. We are not sure if the people they booked for consented to it. Certain groups said they registered hundreds of people. The only issue is whether these people consented.”

Time extension between Pfizer doses depends on prevalence of Indian variant

Khairy said the duration between doses of the Pfizer vaccine will be adjusted according to the prevalence of the B.1.6172 Covid-19 variant – also known as the Indian variant – in a locality. 

Based on his discussions with the Covid-19 Vaccine Candidate Selection Committee headed by Dr Kalaiarasu Peariasamy, the minister said the government will decide whether to extend the period for the second Pfizer-BioNTech shot from three to six weeks.

“The decision to extend (the period of time between) the Pfizer doses will depend on the prevalence of the variant of concern. Even though the strategy to extend is logical, because we can vaccinate more people, the data shows that the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine gives only 33% protection against the B.1.6172 variant.

“The second dose will give 88% protection. Although this strategy is good in terms of more coverage, the quality of protection provided against the B.1.6172 variant is lower. We will look at the locality of the variant of concern. 

“In localities where it is low, we can decide to lengthen the time between the two Pfizer doses, but where it is prevalent, we will maintain the three weeks between the doses. This is in line with the decision made by other countries.”

Govt confident of inoculating 150,000 individuals per day soon

Khairy expressed confidence that Malaysia will be able to administer 150,000 jabs per day based on the vaccine delivery schedules for June and in view of efforts to open more vaccination centres nationwide.

“For the AstraZeneca jab, we are expecting 610,000 doses in June and 410,000 in July. But this is pending NPRA (National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency) approval as the stock is coming from AstraZeneca’s factory in Thailand.

“As for Sinovac, Pharmaniaga has informed us that all our orders (12 million doses) will be fully delivered in June and July – 5,089,800 fill-and-finish doses by Pharmaniaga, and 6,910,200 doses of the finished product from Sinovac in China.

“On May 21, (Health Minister) Datuk Seri (Dr) Adham Baba signed an additional agreement with Pfizer for another 12.8 million doses. This makes for a total of 44.8 million doses (covering 70% of the population) of the Pfizer vaccine ordered by Malaysia.”

He added that vaccination appointments for media practitioners will be pushed out in the first week of June.

However, “if you have already made an appointment under the AstraZeneca opt-in programme, keep your appointment”, he said.

He added that there is no wastage of vaccines despite reports that thousands of people in Kelantan and other states have failed to turn up for their jab appointments.

“I can’t give the exact figure, but there’s hardly any wastage now. Simply because of two reasons. If people don’t show up, there is a reserve list. I’ve checked with Terengganu and Kelantan, and they used the reserve list.

“They will call up the people on the reserve list (provided by the Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force), who are the next ones in the list under MySejahtera. If the waiting list is exhausted, they will just leave the vaccines inside the top-loading freezer, whereas for Pfizer, it can last for another four days.”

Govt not issuing vaccines based on race, religion

Khairy denied that Putrajaya is giving out vaccines based on race and religion at the Desa Tasik vaccination centre.

The claim, which has gone viral, said Muslims were given the Pfizer vaccine, while non-Muslims got Sinovac.

“This is not true, and it really is an irresponsible allegation. On May 24, 943 individuals were vaccinated, where 252 individuals were given Pfizer and 691 were given Sinovac, at the Desa Tasik sports complex vaccination centre.

“Of these, 169 Muslims and 83 non-Muslims received the Pfizer vaccine, and 142 Muslims and 549 non-Muslims received the Sinovac vaccine. There was no segregation based on race and religion.

“The issue occurred because 42 individuals who will be performing the haj, as well as haj officers, received the Pfizer vaccine. This is in line with (the requirement by) the Saudi Arabian government, which recognises only the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines. They don’t recognise the Sinovac vaccine.” – The Vibes, May 27, 2021