PSB: Cut Covid-19 vaccine registration red tape to allow people to be vaccinated soonest

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George Lo, PSB, Parti Sarawak Bersatu

George Lo

KUCHING (June 21): Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB) has called upon the government to cut the Covid-19 vaccine registration red tape to allow people to be given the jab in the shortest possible time.

Its secretary-general George Lo made this call today after having observed that it is taking way too long for those who had registered for vaccination through MySejahtera to be given an appointment slot.

“PSB wants to ask the government why it takes so long for people to register for vaccination through the app MySejahtera.

“This system is supposed to be computerised. After submission of form online, an appointment date and place should be generated by the computer immediately.

“Why do some people have to wait months and have to keep sending requests through help desk? Who is manning the help desk? Because many people have experienced stony silence to repeated requests sent to the so-called help desk which gives no help,” he queried in a statement.

According to Lo, there is no need for a help desk when the system is supposed to be computerised.

As such, he further queried whether the vaccination appointments were done manually behind the scene.

“If that’s the case, then the app online is a farce and should be discarded. Let the people be able to walk in and register and get vaccinated immediately like in other countries.”

He said the priority must be to get the people vaccinated but it seemed the government has put a higher priority on this registration process while the health system is stretched to the limit and people are dying.

The delay in the vaccination of the people in the country was due to this bureaucratic red tape, he claimed.

“PSB calls on the government to cut this registration red tape immediately and let the people get vaccinated any time, any place.”

Lo asserted that most Covid-19 vaccines are similar to the influenza vaccine except for Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine which requires special refrigeration.

He said since anyone can walk into a clinic to get the influenza vaccine without prior registration, there is absolutely no rational basis to require prior registration before getting the Covid-19 vaccine.

He said any need for data and records of a vaccinated person could be taken on the date of vaccination.

“That is to say, anyone can walk in for vaccination and their records will be taken at that time and entered into a central data base.

“Prior registration before being allowed to be vaccinated is nonsense as shown in other countries where vaccination is available without prior registration,” he added.

Lo also claimed that this delay in vaccination arising from the rule on prior registration was a failure of the government.

“PSB calls for immediate termination of this useless exercise,” he stressed.