by AFIQ AZIZ / pic by BERNAMA

PUTRAJAYA and the Selangor government have agreed to iron out the misunderstanding between the federal led Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF) and the state health platform, SELangkah pertaining to the registration to obtain AstraZeneca vaccine recently.

In a joint statement yesterday, National Covid-19 Immunisation Program (NIP) Coordinating Minister Khairy Jamaluddin and Selangor Menteri Besar Amirudin Shari also agreed that there is no manipulation involved in the distribution process by the state online platform.

Instead, both administrations clarified that the state government was implementing AstraZeneca vaccine registration on behalf of individuals who registered under the ImuniSel assistance campaign.

It is a state government initiative to register vaccines ‘offline’ for those who have difficulty having digital access, whereby individuals who registered for vaccines through ImuniSel have already been given permission to be registered to receive vaccinations under NIP.

“AstraZeneca vaccine slot bookings are voluntary or ‘opt in’ upon individual consent and understanding. Therefore its registration requires the different consent of other vaccines in the mainstream NIP program.

“Therefore, ImuniSel takes note of the need to obtain this different permission before registration for the AstraZeneca vaccine is made,” the statement said.

Following that, ImuniSel agreed to submit a list of names of individuals who have been registered to be contacted by CITF to obtain consent to receive the vaccine.

CITF also informed the Selangor government that some individuals had obtained AstraZeneca vaccine appointments through registrations made by other parties, including their family members or employers.

“To solve this problem, an additional feature in the MySejahtera application will be developed in the near future to enable affected individuals, especially those who have received new appointments to replace the previous ones, to provide feedback and get immediate solutions,” the statement said.

The statement came after CITF claimed a number of individuals were given AstraZeneca vaccination appointments even though they had never booked because there were other parties booking in large numbers.

CITF also claimed that the booking was also made without the consent of the individual involved, including that the booking was made through the SELangkah online platform.

SELangkah denied CITF’s allegations, saying it may proceed with legal action on the matter.

After yesterday’s meeting, Khairy and Amiruddin said the state and the federal government have also found the solution to increase the daily vaccination rate in Selangor with more mega vaccination centres to be opened by next month.

Both parties have also agreed to work more closely to ensure the herd immunity agenda fulfil accordingly.

Also present during the meeting was Tan Sri Dr Jemilah Mahmood, Special Advisor to the Prime Minister of Malaysia on Public Health.