Representatives from the national COVID-19 taskforce met Ministry of Health officials on Monday to discuss the situation, with an investigation underway about the use of forged yellow vaccine documents to move around the country.

People who are fully vaccinated for COVID-19 can move freely around Timor-Leste without permission from authorities to do so.

“ The Ministry of Health will submit the proposal for the new vaccination card to the Inter Ministerial and this commission will bring the proposal to the next Council of the Ministers for approva,” Danina Coelho, spokeperson for the Interministerial COVID-19 Taskforce told reporters after the meeting.

It agreed that fabricating a vaccination card was a criminal act.

Bonifacio Maukoli dos Reis, the Vice Minister of Health, told reporters police were already “executing arrests” for vaccination card fabrication.