Hong Kong fake vaccine exemption certificates several doctors and more than 20 patients arrested over allegedly fake certificates.
Coronavirus vaccines are not compulsory in Hong Kong but the Chinese city uses a QR health code system that denies unvaccinated people access to most public site.
Only those with an exemption certificate issued by a doctor can still admittance such venues.
Police report that five doctors, three assistants and 22 patients arrested this month on charges of “conspiracy to defraud” after tip-offs.
The crime carries up to 14 years in jail.
The five doctors blamed of having issued nearly 24,000 exemptions, with prices ranging from HK$350 to over HK$5,000 ($44 – $640).
Police said the doctors had issued a doubtfully large number of certificates and allegedly ignored guidelines for who exempted.
“Citizens who avoid vaccination by making false statements are risk public security and public health,”
Acting senior superintendent Cheung Man-Chun told reporters.
Hong Kong has followed a version of China’s zero – Covid model during the pandemic with strict social isolate curbs and mandatory quarantine, even as rivals reopen.
The fully vaccinated rate is around 90 percent.
But the government has had less success change the elderly — the most at-risk demographic — to inoculate themselves.
Corona edges have been go along with a growth of digital surveillance technology, related to that used on the mainland.
They also come as authority’s crackdown on conflict following huge democracy protests three years ago.
Peter, a father of two, said his family decided not to get vaccinated after they were all infected with the corona virus previously this year, and because of basic health conditions.
They managed to get exemptions but only after going to various doctors.
Superintendent Cheung said police had to investigate those exemptions granted without proper medical reasons.
“They would increase the risk of infection in our community and undermine the effect of the fight against the corona virus,” he told reporters.