Press Statement By Julian Tan:
The government urged to ensure MySejahtera overall system is ready for the sudden surge of usage with the arrival of millions of vaccines in the coming months.
Since the 16th of May, Malaysia’s Covid-19 vaccination rate is seeing a big boost, up from the 40’000 doses highest recorded in a day in April. It reached a record high of 83,648 on Wednesday (19th). On Saturday (22nd), the figure drop to around 45’200 doses. This is perhaps due to system issues that occurred, which also caused delays and long queues at registration counters in all the Pusat Pemberian Vaksin (PPV).
Malaysia targets to administer 160,000 Covid-19 vaccine doses per day from June onwards, up from the 40’000 figure in April. A 4 fold increase.
The National COVID19 Immunisation Programme Special Committee (JKJAV) needs to communicate with various actors in every State on the reliability and stability of the system at current work loading. The feedback will enable the Special Committee to gauge the system resiliency and ability to cope with the upcoming 4 fold increase in vaccination.
Vaccination centres (PPV) rely heavily on connection to the MySejahtera system to process those coming for the vaccination. Even a slight setback on the MySejahtera system will severely impact the speed and smooth flowing of the vaccination process. This early preparation and anticipation are important for the Nation to achieve Herd immunity (80% vaccinated) as soon as possible.
The state government also urged to work closely with telco companies to ensure all the Vaccination centres (PPV) have an uninterrupted network connection. Even at this current rate, some PPV centers are already experiencing snail-pacing telco connections. Those who come for vaccination need a good network connection to log in to their MySejahtera apps during the vaccination process and coordinate their transportation for pickup. Poor telco connectivity will unequivocally slow down the overall vaccination process.
The vaccination program is an unprecedented nationwide effort never experience before. The government needs to ensure all the actors, be it government agencies or 3rd party contractors, must have the relevant, adequate expertise. It is crucial to plan and anticipate any possible challenges that may deter our effort to get as many as possible to be vaccinated. It must be a flawless well-coordinated effort and nothing less.
Malaysian and our economy are showing signs of fatigue from the ever-changing SOP and movement restriction. We keep breaching the previous high record in daily infected cases. Daily covid-19 testing remains at the disappointing rate of 70’000 per day instead of the targeted 150’000. Some ICUs in the hospital already at 317% and 200% capacity, most over 100%. We cannot effort to miss our vaccination target. If anything, we need to increase it. It appears to be our only hope.
Julian Tan
Special assistant to YB Chong Chieng Jen
24th May 2021
