KUALA LUMPUR (May 28): The Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF) has discovered mass third-party bookings for the AstraZeneca vaccine slots without obtaining the consent of the respective individuals, during the recent opt-in.
In a statement today, CITF said this was revealed through the initial investigation that was conducted following complaints from some individuals that they had received appointment dates for the AstraZeneca vaccine even though they did not make any bookings.
“Among the complaints received is their previous appointment dates for other types of vaccine have been replaced with appointments for the AstraZeneca vaccine.
“Our checks and initial investigation also found that the AstraZeneca vaccine slots have been booked in bulk on behalf of other people without getting their consent,” it said, adding that the reservations were made through the same IP addresses.
According to CITF, it had contacted the Selangor government’s SELangkah, which was among those that made the mass bookings.
It said the SELangkah team had admitted to making reservations for individuals in the ImuniSEL database without checking whether they would agree to receive the vaccine and to replace their original appointments with AstraZeneca, if any.
“SELangkah has given its assurance to cooperate with CITF to resolve the issue and ensure that the affected individuals will revert to their original appointments,” the statement said.
CITF said any it would cooperate with relevant parties to ensure that more people would receive their vaccinations and in turn, achieve herd immunity.
Last Wednesday, one million slots for the AstraZeneca vaccine opt-in for Malaysians aged 60 and below in Johor, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Sarawak and Penang were fully booked within 90 minutes.
On May 23, the application for the AstraZeneca vaccine was opened for senior citizens aged 60 and above.
