KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 21 — The Ministry of Health (MOH) today admitted to “technical errors” related to vaccine manufacturer data on the MySejahtera digital Covid-19 vaccination certificate, affecting nearly 100,000 AstraZeneca recipients.
Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin, in a media briefing today, said mismatched vaccine information between the digital vaccination certificate and lot release certificates by the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA) were due to data overlaps between vaccine shipments that use the Global Trade International Number (GTIN) and those listed in the Vaccine Management System (VMS).
Typically, a registered pharmaceutical product in Malaysia is given only one registration number based on the product brand and manufacturing site.
However, Covid-19 vaccines obtained from the global COVAX facility use the same registration number, even though stock comes from different manufacturers. Malaysia received AstraZeneca vaccines produced in South Korea and Sweden from COVAX.
This exception, said Khairy, was made to facilitate the handling of vaccine supply during the pandemic. However, it also affected data in the VMS.
“In reference to the article posted by your portal (CodeBlue), the manufacturer information on the lot release certificate for the complainant’s first dose with batch number ABX6083 i.e. AstraZeneca AB, Sodertalje Sweden, is accurate.
“Currently, all AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines received through the COVAX facility use the same GTIN code as allocated to SK Bioscience in the VMS system. This caused the complainant’s digital vaccination certificate to display SK Bioscience as the manufacturer in line with the data supplied by VMS to MySejahtera.
“To overcome this problem, the MOH is updating the information for the data involved and the action is expected to be completed before October 30, 2021.
“This update is expected to involve the data of nearly 100,000 AstraZeneca vaccine recipients. The updated data will be synchronised automatically to the user through the MySejahtera app,” Khairy said.
He added that affected vaccine recipients can download fresh Covid-19 vaccination certificates from the MySejahtera app after October 30.
CodeBlue previously reported at least four cases of Malaysians vaccinated with AstraZeneca facing discrepancies in vaccine manufacturer information between their digital Covid-19 vaccine certificates and NPRA’s lot release certificates. Multiple people subsequently raised similar complaints on Twitter.
