PETALING JAYA: Those looking to register for the second round of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine opt-in programme, which opens to Malaysians under 60 at noon today (May 26), are hoping the process would go smoothly.
Among those eager to try his luck is 52-year-old Edwin Lim who missed his chance to get a slot during the first round of registration on May 2.
“Many of my friends were excited to get a slot but by the time I tried to book, all the slots were taken up, ” said Lim who is self-employed.
He said he was initially sceptical of the vaccine because of news reports about some of its side effects, including rare cases of blood clots, but thought it was better to get vaccinated soon due to the high number of daily new infections.
He said he also observed that all of his close friends who had their first AstraZeneca shot in the past few weeks did not show any adverse post-injection side effects.
“Looking at the big picture and the daily high cases, everyone should try to get any of the approved vaccines as soon as they can, ” he said.
Others also hoped that the registration site at www.vaksincovid.gov.my would be able to handle heavy loads of people trying to get a spot.
“Make sure your website doesn’t (crash). Please anticipate a high volume at noon, ” said Mike Wai on Facebook on Wednesday (May 26).
As registration opens for Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Penang, Johor and Sarawak, calls were coming from other states such as Melaka, Johor, Negri Sembilan, Perak and Sabah hoping for a chance to opt-in for the vaccine in coming rounds.
“Please open it up to other states as well. Please open for Sabah too, ” said Xiao Fung.
The second round of the opt-in programme still has around one million slots available.
This comes after 228,347 of the initial 1.2 million slots were taken up since it was opened to senior citizens in the four states and KL on May 23.
The first round of the programme on May 2 – open only to Malaysians in the Klang Valley who were above 18 – saw all 268,800 offered slots taken up in about three and a half hours.
