Long lines under the sun and a 4-hour wait at Johor PPV

 

The massive crowd outside the Persada Johor International Convention Centre Covid-19 vaccination centre. With 8,000 appointments over 13 hours, the centre would have had to clear 10 vaccinations every minute.

PETALING JAYA: Long lines stretching up to a kilometre, including old people in wheelchairs, no chairs for the elderly or shade from the afternoon sun and no place to hide when the rain came – it was no wonder that many Johoreans were left fuming at the Persada Johor International Convention Centre Covid-19 vaccination centre (PPV).

It was a long day for the thousands who had to endure a frustrating wait for their turn to be vaccinated.

One of them, who wanted to only be known as Saif, said he had to wait for up to four hours just to get his second dose, an experience he would not want to go through again.

“My appointment on MySejahtera was for 2.30pm. I reached at 1.45pm but was stuck there in the lines outside up to 3pm,” he told FMT. “Only at 6.20pm was my vaccination finally settled.”

He felt particularly sorry for the older folk who had come to get their jabs, saying they seemed uneasy at the big crowd and long lines. He added that there was a fair mix of young and old among the crowd of recipients.

Saif took to Twitter to vent his frustrations, tagging the Covid-19 vaccine supply access guarantee special committee (JKJAV) and vaccine minister Khairy Jamaluddin in his posts to point them to the situation.

“Why are you making things difficult for the elderly by making them line up for so long? It would have been better not to give them appointments at this hour. This will only expose them to the virus.”

He also questioned the point of MySejahtera’s appointment system when people were still forced to line up for hours, adding that it was akin to telling them to get Covid-19.

“Look at this, how can I not get angry looking at these old uncles and aunties getting scorched by the sun in their wheelchairs,” he said in one of his posts with a video.

When he finally got his vaccine four hours later, he said he was told by one of the PPV workers that they had just received new stocks of vaccine and were aiming to administer 10,000 doses a day.

“You know that Persada is so small, yet you still send all the supply there. What are all those shopping malls in Johor Bahru going to be used for?” he asked.

Another Johorean, Delaney, had arrived at 3.30pm to bring her parents for their vaccines, with her mother’s appointment scheduled for 4.30pm and her father at 5pm. Even after sundown, her mom was still waiting for her turn to get vaccinated.

“On the road all the way to the entrance, there was no SOP. Only inside, they followed SOPs. I guess the Rela guards couldn’t control the crowd,” she told FMT.

After posting her experience on Facebook, she said some of her friends had commented that the PPV was just as crowded as yesterday.

FMT has reached out to the science, technology and innovation ministry for comment.

Meanwhile, the PPV’s coordinator Zainal Eran said the massive crowds were caused by the centre receiving an additional 2,000 appointments from federal authorities on top of the daily 6,000.

The PPV, which operates from 8am to 9pm, only takes appointments with no walk-ins available yet.

He said the sudden surge in appointments was due to a surplus in AstraZeneca vaccines, adding that the rain had then caused people lining up to rush to the tent for shelter.

There was also no additional personnel deployed to help with the extra appointments, with only 420 workers present.

Eventually, the police came to help control the crowd, with only those one hour early for their appointment allowed to enter the PPV. - FMT