UNVACCINATED people can pay certain clinics RM1,600 to have their status changed to fully vaccinated without having to take the Covid-19 shots, The Malaysian Insight discovered.

The “upgrade” is accessible via Telegram chat. To join the chat group, one must send to the group administrator a screenshot of one’s unvaccinated status on MySejahtera.

The group, which has 137 members, will inform the clinic to st up an appointment. Each clinic offers only 10 appointment slots.

“Those who have received their appointment for Saturday, please do not scan your MySejahtera anywhere two days before your appointment,” said the administrator of the group earlier this week.

It is believed that the appointments mentioned are at a clinic in Puncak Alam, Selangor.

In another update, the administrator said the service was only available at certain clinics in Johor Baru for now.

“Ten slots (are) available in JB. Others are temporarily closed. Things are heating up in KL, Klang and Seremban so at the moment we do not have slots in these three places,” it said.

“Clinics prefer cash and not online transactions. The location of the clinics will be provided directly to those with appointments.”

It is learnt that these clinics do not dispense the jab during the appointments but will only upgrade the person’s status to vaccinated.

Last month, The Malaysian Insight reported on a similar service where one could pay RM3,000 for a fully vaccinated status.

Payments were made directly to people with backend access to the MySejahtera app and deals were made through secure messaging apps such as Telegram.

A businessman with a “Datuk” title, who was not vaccinated, told The Malaysian Insight that he paid “someone in the Health Ministry” RM3,000 for a “fully vaccinated” status on MySejahtera.

In August, police began investigating the sale of fake digital Covid-19 vaccination certificates.

Last month, screenshots of a post on Telegram offering different types of vaccination certificates for RM1,500, RM400, and RM200 were widely shared on social media.

The government has virtually made Covid-19 vaccination compulsory by allowing only those who are fully dosed to dine in restaurants, stay in hotels, cross state borders, and travel overseas without applying for permission.

Genuine vaccine certificate

The Malaysian Insight has spoken to the group administrator to ask if the Sinovac vaccine certificate offered by the clinics was genuine.

The administrator said the people who had paid for the certification had yet to complain about being cheated.

“The certificate is genuine and can be used anywhere. If this were a scam, people in the group would have complained,” the admin said.

Bukit Aman Criminal Investigation Department director Abdul Jalil Hassan has been informed of the Telegram group.

Police have vowed to look into the matter.

More than 22.4 million people, or 95.7% of the adult population, have had the full course of Covid-19 jabs.

The CovidNow website also showed 97.8% of adults have received at least one dose of the vaccine. – November 7, 2021.