Online opt-in for AstraZeneca vaccine fraught with frustration

PETALING JAYA: The latest round of AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine registration proved to be a bumpier ride than the first time on May 2.

This time around, instead of limiting the opt-in to people in the Klang Valley, one million slots were open to those over 18 living in Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Penang, Johor and Sarawak.

A previous registration drive for those over 60 opened on May 23 where 228,347 of the initial 1.2 million slots were taken.

While many anticipated technical glitches to get in the way, they were not ready to face it multiple times as the system evidently buckled under the frenzy of people trying to get a slot – leaving many with their hopes dashed.

Instagram user @memoiramelia said she tried booking many times but her efforts proved to be in vain when the registration site closed at around 1.30pm on Wednesday (May 26).

“Didn’t even get to book. Tried many times and failed, ” she said.

Many blamed the website’s technical flaws with many expressing their frustration, telling the Covid-19 Immunisation Taskforce (CITF) to fix the site before launching it for public use.

“Get that fixed first! Wasted one hour just trying to click on the location, ” said @melvin.jeffrey on Instagram.

The process was filled with challenges from the get-go with the registration kick-off delayed by 15 minutes as the technical team worked to update the site at www.vaksincovid.gov.my.

The CITF released a tweet minutes before the initial start time at noon to tell users that the site would only be ready by 12.15pm.

But even at the revised time, applicants complained about receiving a notification telling them they had been blocked from the registration site.

There were also those who received a message indicating that there were too many requests to access the site.

The site was finally accessible around 12.20pm but the problems did not end there.

From then on, there were endless complaints about applicants not being able to click on their respective states to get to the page with the appointment grid.

There were also complaints of applicants not receiving a message after completing their registration, leaving them wondering if their applications went through.

However, there were those who successfully managed to register.

Close to 1pm, CITF tweeted that more than 300,000 of the slots up for grabs had already been taken.

Barely half an hour later, the high hopes of applicants came crashing down as the CITF announced that registration was closed.

“Appointment booking for the second round of the AstraZeneca Voluntary Vaccine Initiative is now closed. Those who are eligible will receive an appointment soon. Thank you for your interest in helping the nation achieve herd immunity, ” it said on Twitter.

It is uncertain if all the slots made available in this round were taken up.

Comparatively, registrations closed after about three-and-a-half hours in the first round of the AstraZeneca opt-in programme with all 268,800 slots taken and some applicants put on a waiting list.

The whole experience left a large number of hopeful applicants frustrated.

Nessakumaran Many on Facebook said he failed to get a slot after trying 20 times.

“This is the worst experience I have ever encountered, ” he said.

There were suggestions for the CITF to improve the process with some saying that the problem could have been avoided if registration was staggered according to age and state.

“Should not have had (multiple) states registering on the same day. It is impossible for the server to cope with such high volume, ” said Anita Wong on Facebook.