What to Do if You’ve Lost Your Covid-19 Vaccination Card

Greater than a 12 months in the past, when Covid-19 vaccines grew to become obtainable and jabs began going into arms, it grew to become some extent of delight for some individuals to indicate off a bandaged shoulder and a white Covid-19 Vaccination File card.

However because the coronavirus pandemic rolled on, and the bandages got here off, some individuals merely misplaced monitor of these awkward 4.25-by-3.5-inch white playing cards.

And now, it’s possible you’ll really want yours.

However what in the event you misplaced it?

Chill out.

Many well being departments can offer you your vaccination data. The data themselves aren’t misplaced.

However in the event you’re hoping to make use of that card to show your vaccination standing at work or, say, to journey to a kind of international locations with a extra digital-first method to report protecting, shedding it could make it tougher so that you can participate in these markers of on a regular basis life like being round different individuals. Right here’s what to do.

Your vaccination data is perhaps in your cellphone.

You possibly can be fortunate sufficient to stay in one of many states that permit individuals entry their vaccination data from their smartphones. These states embody Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Utah and Washington.

In different states, have web sites the place vaccination data could be requested, often as a PDF or e mail. These states embody Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin.

Issues get a bit of extra difficult in the event you’re in one of many states that didn’t go digital, sadly.

May your physician offer you one other card?

It relies upon. Your physician would possibly have additional C.D.C.-issued white playing cards. However they need to at the very least have a report of when and the place you obtained your vaccine shot(s) and booster(s). Ask them.

And most states require well being care suppliers who administer vaccine pictures to log that data with state well being officers. So, state well being officers ought to have that data too.

However no, the C.D.C. won’t ship you one other one.

It wasn’t really the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention that gave you that card bearing its emblem. The company offers them to state well being departments, which in flip give them to native vaccination suppliers. These native suppliers give them to individuals after they get their pictures. So, don’t name your buddy’s cousin who works there in search of a favor.

I used to be vaccinated at CVS. Or Walmart. Or Walgreens. Can they change my card?

You’re in luck.

• CVS: A report of the vaccination is accessible to sufferers by way of the CVS Pharmacy app, or on the corporate’s web site, a spokesman stated. A pharmacy worker can print a paper report for you, the spokesman stated.

• Walgreens: The corporate retains data of all vaccinations administered by its pharmacies, based on a spokeswoman. If sufferers lose their bodily card, they’re inspired to contact their pharmacy for a brand new one, the spokeswoman stated.

• Walmart: For those who have been vaccinated at a retailer or certainly one of its sponsored occasions, Walmart can confirm your data and join together with your state’s immunization registry. As soon as that’s full, Walmart will reissue a vaccine card to mirror the doses administered at Walmart, a spokeswoman stated in a press release. The corporate may also present that data digitally, or by way of a QR code.

That is so difficult.

It’s definitely simpler in some locations than others. These C.D.C. playing cards are too huge to slot in a pockets, making them unwieldy and, arguably, liable to being displaced. That’s one motive many states took a extra digital method.

In New York, for instance, you’ll be able to entry town Division of Well being’s web site and procure vaccination data, a spokesman for the division advised me.

Getting data from town’s web site, My Vaccine File, is fairly quick. I punched in some biographical data and inside seconds I obtained my vaccine historical past. It was three pages lengthy, so I’ll not grasp the entire thing on my fridge.

Some apps work primarily as digital wallets, a spot to retailer data in your cellphone till it’s good to present somebody. Others have further options, similar to the power to schedule Covid exams and obtain alerts about potential exposures close by.

The Excelsior Move Plus app from New York State can present check outcomes and vaccine data. The free app could be downloaded right here.

Outdoors the USA, many international locations have taken a extra streamlined method. In Britain, the Nationwide Well being Service shows a QR code for absolutely vaccinated residents. Equally, members of the European Union concern a digital Covid certificates exhibiting that an individual both is vaccinated, has examined unfavourable or has recovered from Covid-19.

When you get your data, put it aside!

Many locations that require proof of vaccination will settle for an image of your Covid-19 vaccination card. So, when you get it, {photograph} it. Simply make sure that it’s in focus.

(However, uh, don’t put it in your Instagram account.)

And in the event you obtained a QR code together with your vaccination data, you’ll be able to retailer it within the digital pockets in your iPhone (with iOS 15). These are tougher to lose!

There are additionally apps from Clear, Frequent Move, Docket, and IBM that may show you how to preserve monitor of your vaccination report.

Please don’t purchase, borrow or make your personal vaccination card.

As with driver’s licenses and passports, there are huge penalties for misrepresenting your vaccination data. Don’t be that man. Or that man. Or that man. Or these guys.