HULU LANGAT, April 15 — The Selangor state government has set up a Covid-19 vaccine registration platform, ImuniSel, to register people who do not have a mobile phone or internet access.
In general, the public nationwide can register for the Covid-19 vaccine through three methods: the MySejahtera mobile application, online registration, and by calling the Covid-19 vaccine supply access committee (JKJAV) hotline.
However, all these methods either require an internet connection or a telephone. Hence, to bridge the gap for Malaysians who don’t have internet or phone access, the Selangor state government launched ImuniSel on April 4 that enables vaccine registration volunteers to record offline one’s details to register them for their shots.
“This is a medium where we can record their data and we can create a whole ecosystem that is not really 100 per cent dependent on the internet while doing the registration,” ImuniSel project manager Mohamad Izlan Irman Suhaimi told CodeBlue at a vaccine registration counter during a Covid-19 community screening program in Taming Jaya, Balakong.
Once the volunteer has access to the internet, the registration data collated on ImuniSel offline will be automatically uploaded onto the ImuniSel server. This offline method of registering people for their coronavirus shots is more efficient than collecting details on pen and paper in areas without internet access.
The registrations on ImuniSel are then manually sent to MySejahtera, the federal government’s primary database for Covid-19 vaccination registrations.
“We are actually hoping that Malaysians with community spirit, someone with that capability will help those who don’t have the capability,” said Mohaamd Izlan.
Mohamad Izlan said that based on 2019 data from the Department of Statistics, 37 per cent of residents in Selangor, the country’s most developed state, either do not have smartphones, mobile phones, or internet access.
“ImuniSel — why we decided this is targeted to those using feature phones, or those who are non-IT savvy, no access to any mobile devices and computers, as well as to those in the elderly group.
“At the end of the day, this data will be shared to the Ministry of Health, MySejahtera and as well as to the Selangor state health department (JKNS),” Mohamad Izlan said.
Besides using computers at registration counters, vaccine registration volunteers can also use their own smartphones to register the public for Covid-19 inoculation.
People Get ImuniSel Card After Vaccine Registration
Community programme administrator at Selangor Task Force Operation (STFO), Dr Nurul Solihin Nurulhasnan, explained that each individual who registers for Covid-19 vaccination with ImuniSel will also get a physical card with a QR code, besides their personal details.
“We give them this card. This card has a QR code behind. This acts as the booking card for them,” Dr Solihin told CodeBlue.
“So, whenever they want to check whether their appointment is there for the vaccine, they just need to scan the QR code.”
If one does not have an internet connection to scan the QR code, they can also call the hotline on their ImuniSel card to check details for their Covid-19 vaccination appointment.
Vaccine Minister Khairy Jamaluddin recently said 57 per cent of 31,776 people who received appointments after registering for their Covid-19 jabs did not respond to the offered vaccination dates sent through MySejahtera or SMS.
A few MPs running vaccine registration drives have told CodeBlue that many of their elderly constituents did not own mobile phones, even in the cities of Kuching in Sarawak and Petaling Jaya in Selangor.
