Delren Terrence Douglas, president of the Association for Residential Aged Care Operators (AgeCope) said Khairy Jamaluddin, the minister in charge of coordinating the national vaccination programme, had given this assurance at a meeting held yesterday.

“No action will be taken against these unregistered centres. We were told ‘kelonggaran akan diberi’.

“If at all there are any problems, they can raise it with the minister,” Douglas said.

He added that only the AstraZeneca vaccine would be administered for the time being, while those wanting the Pfizer-BioNTech shots would have to wait for an additional month.

“We were also told that aged care centres in Perak, Kelantan, Pahang and Sarawak will be administered the vaccines for now. The vaccination would be held at the centres itself so the elderly need not go out,” he said.

Douglas said the minister had advised aged care centre operators to register via MySejahtera for the vaccination of the whole centre. This is to ensure that the vaccination is carried out at their premises.

Those who register their residents individually would have to bring them to the designated vaccination centre instead.

On Monday, AgeCope had raised concerns over unregistered centres being afraid to register for vaccines, for fear of reprisals. They also urged for the vaccination to be hastened due to the sudden rise in the number of cases in the country.