LETTER | I am 71 years old and I live in Selangor. I have registered for my Covid-19 vaccination through MySejahtera and I am still waiting to be called up. I have checked with my friends of my age in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur and they are all also still waiting. My other friends and old classmates, also of the same age, in my hometown in Perak have already got their jabs more than a week ago.

I do not know why vaccination in Selangor is so slow. Selangor is the state with the highest Covid-19 infections. I would imagine the authorities would give the state a higher priority with greater urgency in dispensing the vaccines.

I expect further delays in this phase two of the vaccination rollout since the authorities have decided to divert the AstraZeneca vaccines to volunteers. I am not against this diversion. But I do not agree with the manner the AstraZeneca vaccines are being dispensed.

The authorities invited volunteers to register online for the AstraZeneca vaccines. And stopped the registration after a few hours, as soon as the numbers are attained for the available shots.

Instead of stopping the registration on attaining the numbers, the authorities should have fixed a period for registration - say, three to five days - to give everyone the opportunity to volunteer. And when they have more volunteers than the number of available shots, they should prioritise the senior citizens and give these AstraZeneca vaccines to the elderly first. This way, phase two of the vaccination programme need not be delayed.

I read that another one million shots of AstraZeneca vaccines will soon be available and the authorities will be announcing details for registration this week. Why do the authorities need to trigger another round of registration rush? Why can’t the registration be an ongoing process? Shouldn’t the authorities allocate the vaccination to older people first? 

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