Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation Khairy Jamaluddin has recently shared that the response rate to the vaccine appointment notification has been very low. Out of the 31,776 vaccine appointment notifications that have been pushed via MySejahtera and SMS two weeks ago, 18,215 (57.3%) individuals did not respond which is worrying.
Khairy has urged everyone that have received the notification to respond as it will help with the planning and coordination of vaccine supplies at the vaccination centres. The Minister added that this was necessary to avoid wastage as they would need to know how many people would show up.
Based on our sources that have received their notification, some had only received their appointment notification a day after the scheduled vaccination date. It isn’t clear if this is a widespread issue but it raises a concern that some are not aware of their vaccine appointment due to the delayed notification.
According to the special committee on ensuring access to COVID-19 vaccine supply (JKJAV), all eligible recipients will be informed about their appointment 14 days prior to their scheduled date. Once accepted, they will receive a call and SMS reminder 3 days prior. According to JKJAV, individuals must respond to the notification within 48 hours or else their vaccination will be automatically rescheduled to another time.
For those who have used MySejahtera to register, are reminded to enable notifications for their MySejahtera app. This can be checked under their phone’s settings e.g. (Settings > Notification > MySejahtera). You can also check if your registration is recorded by using the appointment checker on the JKJAV website.
For those who have missed their appointment, may call the hotline at 1-800-888-828 to reschedule. From our experience, the hotline is very responsive and they operate between Monday to Saturday, from 7am to 11pm. Khairy has recently announced that elderly couples under Phase 2 with different appointment dates will be able to reschedule their vaccination appointments to the same time slot by calling the same hotline number.
