Covid-19 vaccination status of 1,223 people blocked in latest fake cert probe in Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysian authorities have uncovered another fake Covid-19 vaccination certificate ring in north-eastern Terengganu state, just days after police in Johor smashed a similar syndicate.

In the latest case, the vaccination status of 1,223 people in Terengganu was blocked by health officials.

State police chief Rohaimi Mohd Isa said that all had paid a doctor in a private clinic in Marang district to obtain a fake certificate without being vaccinated.

The 1,223 were in a list of 1,900 people who had dealt with the clinic for the purpose of vaccination.

"From investigations so far, I can say that nearly everyone who dealt with the clinic did not accept the vaccine," Mr Rohaimi was quoted as saying by The Malaysian Insight news website.

"Once the investigations and due process in courts prove these vaccine certificates were fake then we will clean up the MySejahtera list to make sure that those who are proven to have bought them will be taken off the list," Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin told a news conference on Thursday (Jan 20). He was referring to Malaysia's Covid-19 tracking app.

The list of names was seized from the clinic when police arrested the doctor on Jan 8. The suspect is believed to have embarked on the racket in September after his clinic was approved to administer the Covid-19 vaccine.

He was reported to have been paid between RM400 (S$128) and RM600 for each certificate without actually administering the injection.

The doctor was exposed by customers who had paid for fake certificates but whose vaccination status was not changed in their MySejahtera applications.

On Monday, Johor police busted a syndicate offering Covid-19 digital certificates at up to RM650 each. Eight people, including three employees of a private clinic, were arested.

Johor police Chief Commissioner Kamarul Zaman Mamat said the syndicate, which had been operating for about a month, issued digital certificates to at least 30 people by charging up to RM650 each.

Another similar case recently involved a clinic in Gombak, in the state of Selangor, where police arrested six workers and the owner of a polyclinic.

Selangor police chief Arjunaidi Mohamed said the polyclinic initially charged RM3,000 for a certificate, but then reduced it to RM500 due to competition from other clinics.

The polyclinic allegedly threw away the vaccines and returned the empty bottles to the health ministry to cover its tracks.

"Checks on confiscated laptops showed 5,601 patients have been registered as vaccine recipients in the MySejahtera system. Further investigations are underway to identify the number of people who were registered without receiving their jabs," Datuk Arjunaidi was quoted as saying by the Malay-language Berita Harian newspaper on Jan 17.

Malaysia reported a spike in Covid-19 infections on Thursday with 3,764 fresh cases, Health Director-General Noor Hisham Abdullah said this is the highest tally since Dec 30, which recorded 3,997 cases.