By Sue-Ann Wayow
PERSONS creating and distributing fake Covid-19 vaccination immunization cards are engaging in a criminal act and can be sent to prison if proven guilty.
Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh on Wednesday said the Ministry of Health was aware of rumours that there were fake cards being sold to the public and a police report has been made.
He was speaking at the Ministry of Health’s virtual press conference on Wednesday.
He referred to the Forgery Act Chapter 11.13 Section 5 which states, “Any person who, with intent to defraud or deceive, forges any document whatsoever having thereupon or affixed thereto the stamp or impression of the Public Seal of Trinidad and Tobago or the Seal of the President is liable to imprisonment for life.”
The law also states that any person who, with intent to defraud or deceive, commits forgery of any certificate, declaration or order under any written law relating to vaccination or to the registration of births or deaths, is liable to imprisonment for seven years.
Deyalsingh said, “A couple files brought forward with information from a very concerned whistleblower are actually on the way to the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service for their action and if proved to be valid, those persons will go before the courts and go to prison for seven years. We are taking this matter very seriously.”
He added, “The person who sells the card and the person who receives the card are liable to be imprisoned for seven years.”
Deyalsingh said the ministry has taken steps to mitigate the fake cards including given a certain number of cards to vaccination sites.
“We immediately revisited the way we do vaccination cards. What we have been doing over the past week or two, we have been administering vaccination cards on a morning to all vaccination sites in tandem with the number of vaccines. If a site is getting 100 vaccines per day, they get 100 cards per day. At the end of the day when vaccines are reconciled, vaccines administration are reconciled with cards,” the minister said.
