Second round of opt-in over in an hour despite glitches

PETALING JAYA: Within an hour, nearly one million of the AstraZeneca vaccination slots were taken up in the second round of registration.

In a statement, Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF) said over 950,000 doses of the vaccine were snapped up by Malaysians aged 18 and above.

The task force also apologised to Malaysians over the technical glitches throughout the registration process that left many frustrated.

“A total of 1.261 million doses of AstraZeneca were offered, of which 275,208 doses were taken up by senior citizens when the opt-in was first opened on May 23.

“For the record, a total of 956,609 slots were taken up today (yesterday).

“Meanwhile, a total of 29,183 people on the AstraZeneca waiting list previously have been included this time, ” it said in the statement yesterday.

The opt-in, which is an offshoot from the mainstream National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme, saw about a million slots up for grabs for those living in Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Penang, Johor and Sarawak.

This was after an earlier 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.

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 website at www.vaksincovid.gov.my.

CITF posted an update on Twitter at noon, informing users that the website 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 website.

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

The website was finally accessible around 12.20pm. However, 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.

Some complained of having to refresh numerous times after being kicked out of the registration page, having to go through multiple times of “I am not a robot” verification.

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

On the bright side, many successfully managed to register.

Close to 1pm, CITF tweeted that more than 300,000 of the vaccine slots had been taken.

At 1.22pm, 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.

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 being put on a waiting list.