Romania’s Interior Minister Lucian Bode says authorities are probing 400 people on suspicion of issuing false Covid-19 vaccine certificates.
The minister confirmed the inquiry during a meeting with Prime Minister Florin Citu, education minister and vaccine coordinator Valeriu Gheorghita on Thursday.
Interior ministry officials are “undertaking action to combat illegal vaccine certificates,” a statement on Thursday said. The minister wants to crack down on false vaccine certificates which put everyone in danger
“We currently have 200 criminal cases in which 400 people are investigated,” the statement said.
On Thursday, police in Dambovita county in southern Romania searched the home of a family doctor who is suspected of issuing false vaccine certificates for 10 football players.
Dambovita police said the doctor had been “instigated by a man” to falsify certificates.
The government is concerned about a spike in Covid-19 cases. Infections have risen as the summer season ends and the new school year begins.
Health authorities anticipate 2,000 cases a day at the end of the month, up from early August when there were only a few dozen cases a day. The vaccine takeup rate remains low with less than 30% of the population inoculated.
The doctor falsely claimed 400 lei from state health insurance for the vaccinated people.
It emerged last month that some Romanians are asking their doctors to issue them false vaccine certificates without actually a jab.
The phenomenon is called ‘vaccine in the sink’. People pay a bribe and the dose is thrown away. The person is then issued with a vaccine certificate.
