As an increasing percentage of the adult population receives both jabs of vaccination, along with the government’s announcement on greater perks and freedom for those fully vaccinated, digital vaccination certificates have become a vital need in our daily lives.
According to The Star, many covet a fully vaccinated status, leading to a rising demand for forged digital certificates. Private clinics and general practitioners (GP) are offered up to RM1,000, three times the cost of self-paying vaccination (RM350), just to falsify one’s vaccination status.
The President of the Federation of Private Medical Practitioners Associations Malaysia, Dr. Steven Chow explained that these parties may not necessarily be anti-vaxxers, but those who have urgent need to travel.
However, some who go for their vaccination appointments are not there to be inoculated, but solely to obtain verification of completed vaccination.
He added that any document signed by a registered medical practitioner has a serious legal responsibility attached. Bear in mind that fake certificates would have serious repercussions for the people as well as the country.
There are steps one can do to prevent rogue certificates:
- Never share screenshots of your certificate with anyone or on social media
- If you find out that your certificate has been misused, file a police report
If you are a premises owner:
- Verify your patron’s certificate. Make sure the COVID-19 status is low-risk and updated.
- Check if the person is fully vaccinated
- Make them scroll their Profile page up or down to ensure it is not a screenshot
In light of the situation, a new verification app alias Vaccine Certification Verifier has been introduced to help verify the authenticity of one’s digital vaccination certificate. Business proprietors can make use of the app to check the legitimacy of their customers’ certificates.
The app is available for download on both the App Store and Google Play Store.
To get verified, one has to open their My Sejahtera app, tap close (upper right), go to Profile (bottom right) and scroll down to their digital vaccination certificate and tap on ‘show QR’ in the middle.
Gisele Soo
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