Health detects increasing fake COVID-19 cards

Fake COVID-19 vaccination cards can easily be detected & will not be accepted as prerequisite for the yellow card

The Ministry of Health and Medical Services (MHMS), National Health Emergency Operation Center (NHEOC) has recently noted increasing number of fake COVID-19 vaccination cards presented at its office, as prerequisite to obtaining the WHO International Certificate for Vaccination (Yellow card) required for international travels.

Mr. Rolly Viga, NHEOC Manager said that public must know that the Ministry of Health and Medical Services has in place a verification system that can easily detect such fake cards.

Name, date and time of receiving the COVID-19 vaccination 1^st, 2^nd and booster doses, name of nurse administering the vaccine including location of the vaccination site where the vaccines were administered are all in the Health Information System of Health.

 

“So whenever a person presents his or her card to the Ministry of Health to request for the WHO International Certificate for Vaccination Yellow card, our officers will cross check the card against our health database. If information on the vaccination cards has a match within the database then a Yellow card for international travel will be issued, otherwise the card will be regarded as fake and no Yellow cards will be issued”, explained Mr. Viga.

The Ministry of Health would like to once again remind the public that many countries still requires this Yellow card as proof of fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as per their entry requirements including Solomon Islands.

It is part and parcel of global efforts against COVID-19 and Solomon Islands is part of this effort.

“We would like to remind the public that it is illegal to obtain fake cards and one can be charged for fraudulently obtaining and providing fake COVID vaccine cards. Any persons travelling out of Solomon Islands with a fake vaccination has the potential to jeopardise trust in our verification system by the global community once caught. This can potentially impact negatively on other outgoing travellers from the Solomon Islands who are fully vaccinated not only for COVID-19 but also for other vaccines captured in the WHO International Certification for Vaccination Yellow Card,” the ministry said tonight.

Therefore, the Ministry of Health and Medical Services is maintaining this strict verification process to prevent any persons from obtaining the yellow card with fake COVID-19 vaccination cards.

Mr. Viga also reminds the public who scheduled to travel overseas and want to apply for yellow card to submit request two weeks before flight date.

“Requirement to request for yellow card; 1. Copy of your original COVID-19 vaccination card, 2. Copy of your passport bio page and 3. Copy of Itinerary if possible”, said Viga.