In New York, carrying a fake COVID-19 vaccination card can lead to a year in prison if convicted, as well as up to four years for falsifying a health passport.
This is important since New York and other states require proof of vaccination since there has been an increase in the number of counterfeit certificates available.
Earlier this year, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office charged 15 people for allegedly arranging fake vaccination cards.
According to Sean Ross Collins, a spokesman for state Sen. Anne Kaplan, who co-sponsored the legislation, criminal possession of forged instruments will now be considered “a Class A Misdemeanor carrying a maximum sentence of 1 year in prison.”
“Computer tampering is a Class E Felony which carries a sentence from 1 and 1/3 years to 4 years in prison,” he said.
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Earlier on Wednesday evening, NY Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) said in a statement following her signing of the Truth in Vaccination bill into law, “We need to make sure we learn the lessons of the pandemic so we don’t make the same mistakes twice.”
“These new laws will help us improve our response to the pandemic now, a crackdown on fraudulent use of vaccination records, and help us better understand the areas of improvement we need to make to our health care system so we can be even more prepared down the road,” Hochul said.
