Dear Editor,
A few weeks ago, after it became evident that Government was going to use the Covid Vaccination card as a daily tool for entry in to offices and buildings, I penned a letter to press enquiring about what systems the Ministry of Health had in place for quick replacement of cards that may become or damaged or lost. Seeing how important this booklet has become it was a question which needed to be asked – and answered. To the best of my knowledge there was no answer nor has there been any public guidelines on this.
It needs repeating here that the Vaccine booklets are not designed for everyday use. It is made of paper and is quite frail. It can easily become bent or soiled and if it gets wet, the pages become damaged. I am certain that many booklets, after the first week of use, are already quite soiled and starting to tatter. They can also easily get lost – probably stolen when in a bag, or dropped out when coming out of a car, or forgotten on some official’s desk when you went into an office or public place. So many possibilities of damage or loss are now opened up with the daily use of this booklet.
So what system is in place for such inevitable eventuality? Remember we would need a replacement almost immediately since our daily life activities now depend on it. Can we simply visit a health outpost and get a replacement? Some enterprising citizens came up with a quite creative solution – photocopy the cover of the booklet along with the ID card, laminate it, and keep that on your person for use as evidence if requested. But some government and private institutions are refusing this. They request to see both the original booklet and ID since that is what is stipulated by law.
Taking into consideration the frailty of the card and most likely difficulty of replacement, the least the Minister of Health can do for now is encourage use of a lamination of the booklet. Make it public so everyone accepts it and citizens are not subjected to some places accepting it and others rejecting it. This issue may seem minor to high ranking officials who are already immersed in so many other difficult decision making, but sooner rather than later it will become a major issue when citizens are denied access to their daily activities even though they are vaccinated. Hope someone in authority looks at this and comes up with a workable solution.
Sincerely,
M. Abraham
