KUALA LUMPUR, May 2 — The window to join the waiting list for the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine was now closed, Khairy Jamaluddin disclosed this evening.

Earlier, Putrajaya opened a waiting list for Malaysians who were not able to secure appointments for one of the 268,000 doses of the vaccine that was carved out of the main National Immunisation Programme to allay public concerns.

"We have closed the AZ wait list. There are more AZ vaccines scheduled for delivery. We will prioritise those on the wait list when the new shipment arrives,” Khairy said on Twitter this evening.

Malaysians in the Klang Valley snapped up appointments for the 268,000 doses of the Astrazeneca vaccine within hours of the booking system going live at noon today.

The expressed interest in the vaccine appeared to eclipse concerns over the rare possibility of blood clots reportedly linked to the vaccine, which prompted the government to launch the special AstraZeneca vaccine registration.

Earlier, Khairy also said Malaysia was expecting another shipment of a million AstraZeneca vaccine doses this month as part of the Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access (Covax) initiative and that the special registration programme would be expanded to other parts of the country.