Overwhelming response for AstraZeneca vaccine

 

KUALA LUMPUR: Interest in getting the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine is massive with the site's traffic being overwhelmed when registration opened at noon today.

Many took to social media to air their frustrations as they could not book their slots.

They shared screenshots of the webpage which showed that all slots were full but they could still click the date to be included in the waiting list.

Twitter user @nazrin_ghazali was surprised by the situation.

He tweeted "Not even a minute and #AstraZeneca vaccines are fully booked. So fast, much like 'sambal nyet' (a famous chilli paste being sold online). Not enough time to refresh and it is already sold out."

Another Twitter user @itisLELAND also had the same fate.

He said, "This surely must be a joke. I literally entered it the moment it appeared and all slots are already full??? #AstraZeneca."

Some also had difficulties completing their application as they could not click on "submit".

Twitter user @shrikeworks said, "Cannot submit application... #AstraZeneca".

User @mrizalisa was also shocked that the slots were fully booked within eight minutes.

However he refreshed the webpage and the slots became available, but he could not submit his application.

Despite that, some lucky ones were able to secure their vaccine slots.

A New Straits Times Online staff managed to register and he expressed his excitement at being able to get through.

Twitter user @liztai was also one of the successful ones.

She said, "Not only was the experience booking my #AstraZeneca buggy (had to click 30 times to get registered!!) the spelling grammatical errors are making me gah. Now I wonder if I will get confirmation or not."

National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme's coordinating minister Khairy Jamaluddin provided an update at 12.31pm saying there were still slots available and that traffic was overwhelming during the first few minutes.

He previously said the AstraZeneca vaccine opt-in was opened to 268,000 people in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor on a "first click and first served" basis via the website. - NST