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Penang exco: Thousands who signed up for Covid-19 vaccination since February yet to receive appointments

Chong said the respondents had signed up for vaccination between February and March this year. — Picture by Sayuti Zainudin
Chong said the respondents had signed up for vaccination between February and March this year. — Picture by Sayuti Zainudin

GEORGE TOWN, Aug 2 — Thousands of people in Penang who have registered for Covid-19 vaccination through their MySejahtera application since February still have not received their vaccine appointments, Penang state exco Chong Eng said today.

The social development and non-Islamic religious affairs committee chairman said her service centre conducted a survey and within 48 hours, had collected 4,120 respondents who have not received their vaccine appointments yet.

She said the respondents have signed up for vaccination between February and March this year.

“The common question these people have in mind is why they have to wait for such a long time,” she said.

She said the respondents claimed that they have friends who have registered later than them but have already been vaccinated.

The Padang Lalang state assemblyman said the replies were collected between 2pm on July 30 and 12pm on August 1.

“Based on the data collected, only four are 60-year-old, this may be due to the fact that those 60-year-old and above have been prioritised for vaccination,” she said.

As for the remaining respondents, 107 are aged between 50 and 60 years, 2,613 are aged between 30 and 49 while 1,396 are aged between 18 and 29.

Of the 4,120 respondents, 2010 of them are from the Central Seberang Perai district, 1,392 from the Northeast district on the Penang island, 499 from the Southwest district on the Penang island, 142 from North Seberang Perai and 77 from South Seberang Perai.

“Based on the statistics, this could be a common phenomenon throughout the entire state and the country that many have signed up early but do not receive vaccine appointment until today,” she said.

She urged the federal government to look into the matter and rectify the errors in the MySejahtera system if there are any.

Chong said the state has submitted a proposal to the Health Ministry for hawkers in wet markets to be prioritised in the vaccination programme when a cluster was detected at the Bukit Mertajam wet market.

“The hawkers are considered as a high-risk group as they are dealing with a large number of shoppers,” she said.

She said Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force is discussing the proposal and hoped that it would be approved.

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