Selangor MB to meet CITF over vaccination claims

PETALING JAYA: Selangor Mentri Besar Amiruddin Shari will meet the Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF) chief over the controversy involving the AstraZeneca online appointments.

Amiruddin said he got in touch with Khairy Jamaluddin on CITF’s statement accusing SELangkah, Selangor’s health platform, of making block bookings in large quantities for AstraZeneca vaccinations without checking with the individuals concerned.

“There is a misunderstanding. We need to coordinate better. Matters can be discussed and it should not turn into a media war, ” he tweeted yesterday.

On Friday night, SELangkah refuted claims that it made block bookings in large quantities for AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccinations, with CEO Tengku Iesta Tengku Alaudin threatening legal action against those spreading false allegations.

CITF claimed that SELangkah had acknowledged making reservations for AstraZeneca vaccinations without first checking if individuals in the ImuniSEL database had agreed to it.

CITF claimed that this had resulted in the change of appointments for those who had been given earlier dates at the vaccination centres.

It said preliminary investigations into complaints about the vaccination appointment slots showed that a large number came from the same IP addresses, including the SELangkah app.

On Wednesday, when bookings opened up for those aged 18 and above in certain states, the situation became chaotic when many were unable to access the system, with all slots taken up within an hour.

Khairy, who is the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme coordinating minister, had on Thursday announced that the next batch of AstraZeneca vaccines will no longer be offered through the opt-in system and will instead be reincorporated into the programme.

He added that this was due to the overwhelming public response which showed that there was no more hesitation towards the AstraZeneca vaccine.