Stop COVID-19 negative certificate forgeries

On Sunday, 23 travellers at Entebbe International Airport were found to have fake COVID-19 certificates, a requirement for travellers intending to travel out of the country.

More worrying is that while Sunday was the single highest day in terms of discovering fake COVID-19 certificates, airport security personnel have been battling this ill since the airport opened earlier this month.

Suspects were discovered due to the QR code on genuine certificates that the airport is equipped to detect.

Police say the affected travellers fall in two categories: genuine travellers, who go through the motions of doing the test, but are issued with fake certificates and those who don't bother with the test and just buy the certificate off the black market.

Maybe we shouldn't be surprised that people are trying to cut corners.

In order to travel, one must have a COVID-19 certificate showing they are not positive and the test should have been done 72 hours before the time of travel after the test results have come out. For years, there has been a racket in yellow fever cards. For a few shillings, travellers have bought yellow fever cards without being vaccinated.

However, COVID-19 is a different case with countries around the world being more sensitive to the disease and so, while travellers may make it through Entebbe, they are in danger of being discovered abroad, where testing for the virus is more prevalent.

Other countries are more stringent with the punishment they mete out for infractions around the disease.

Uganda is one of the most successful countries in keeping infection rates low. As of Monday, we have seen 10,691 infections with 6,992 recoveries and 97 deaths to the disease.

However, this success can be lost because of the cases of laxity as described above. Congratulations to the staff at the airport on discovering these cases and preventing their travel abroad.

They should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, if only to dissuade others from trying the same tricks.

Finally, the security agents, too, should ferret out the perpetrators of these forgeries and shut them down.