According to Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba, the Ministry of Health (MOH) will investigate why the majority of Malaysians have yet to register for the COVID-19 vaccine.
Dr Adham said the ministry hoped to register 70% to 80% of Malaysians for the National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme, but only 7.6 million of the 26.7 million citizens who were registered had done so through the MySejahtera app.
The number is indeed appalling and far from achieving herd immunity.
“I’m not happy about what I’ve seen so far. The ministry is unhappy with the findings. We’ll figure out why they didn’t sign up,” said Dr Adham.
Some of the reasons broached by the MOH on the poor numbers could be if the campaign insufficiently persuasive, or are the public concerned and want to wait and see?
“Are they not having MySejahtera app coverage in their regions, or is it due to a lack of awareness?
“So far, seven million people have signed up – it’s still a small number,” he said at a press conference after officiating the district-level Malaysia Prihatin COVID-19 Vaccination: Protect Yourself, Protect All programme in Segamat, Johor.
The MOH hopes that registration would increase prior to the start of the second phase of the vaccination programme on 17th April in order to prevent problems in the final phase.
Dr Adham also said that manual registration has been opened at health departments, clinics, government and private hospitals to make it easier for people without Internet access to register for vaccination.
Meanwhile, only 3.5 % of COVID-19 vaccine recipients experience light side effects.
