Italian nurse held over fake COVID-19 jabs to anti-vaxxers

By Alvise Armellini

ROME (AA) - A nurse was arrested in Naples, Italy on Wednesday on charges of taking bribes to help anti-vaxxers avoid COVID-19 jabs, as Italian police uncovered the latest alleged vaccination scam.

The man would charge €150 ($169) to pretend to give COVID-19 vaccines to people, a police statement said, adding that officers documented more than 30 such cases.

A public health employee, who was facilitating anti-vaxxers, was also detained. The health workers are charged with corruption for acts contrary to their official duties, embezzlement and forgery of official documents.

Anti-vaxxers in Italy are under pressure to get vaccinated in order to obtain COVID-19 vaccination passes, which are required for most social activities, such as eating out or going to the cinema, as well as for traveling on trains, planes and buses.

The Naples scam would have allowed them to get a pass without being immunized.

Other cases of cheating have been reported in recent months. One of the most notorious involved a dentist who last December went into a vaccination center with a prosthetic arm, trying to trick a nurse into inoculating the vaccine in his fake arm rather than in the real one.

He was caught, reported to police, and properly vaccinated the following day.

More than 87% of Italians over the age of 12 have been fully vaccinated, according to government data. Earlier this month, inoculation was made mandatory for those aged 50 and above.

The government is trying to increase vaccination rates in a bid to stem the surge of COVID-19 cases caused by the omicron variant, which has affected the whole of Europe.

On Tuesday, Italy reported 186,740 new infections and 468 COVID-19-related deaths.