PENANG, May 18 (Sin Chew Daily) — Only two out of 1,700 care homes in the country are currently involved in the COVID-19 vaccination program.

Care home operators urge the government to speed up the process to include elderly people in unregistered homes.

Delren Douglas, president of the Association for Residential Aged Care Operators in Malaysia (AgeCope), said about 20,000 to 30,000 elderly people are now living in care homes across the country.

There are currently 12 old folks' homes run by the government, 365 licensed private care homes and more than 100 unlicensed private care homes that have registered with the authorities for vaccination.

Douglas urged the authorities to take into consideration the many unregistered care homes, about 1,300 of them, by placing the safety of elderly people in these homes as priority.

"The operators of these unlicensed homes should come forward to register for vaccination. Issues related to licensing can be resolved later," he said.

Douglas said he was informed that a care home in Putrajaya was notified by the Ministry of Health that vaccination would commence in the home soon.

"We have started registration since February but vaccination for homes have not started until now. Some have since relocated," he said.

Douglas was speaking in a virtual press conference organized by Pulau Tikus state assemblyman Chris Lee, with AgeCope secretary Fong Muntoh on Monday.

Fong, who has slammed the government for neglecting the vaccination for elderly people in care homes, said it was a good start for Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin to announce the second phase of registration for AstraZeneca voluntary opt-in COVID-19 vaccination program which will be open to senior citizens.

Fong said he hoped the government would honor the promise of providing vaccine manufactured by Pfizer for old people.

Fong said the authorities should get in touch with care home staff as soon as possible to arrange for the vaccination.

Based on the discussions with the Ministry of Health, care homes were to given vaccine produced by Pfizer during phase I.

However, due to logistic issues, the plan has been deferred to phase II.

Lee said elderly people living in care homes were initially scheduled to be vaccinated in April, but so far vaccination has not been started yet.