This week, the U.S. hit a milestone in the battle against COVID-19: about 70 percent of eligible people have now been vaccinated. This prompted a listener to ask our “OH Really” team, what happens if you lose your vaccination card?
The slightly-larger-than-wallet-size cardboard vaccination cards were designed by the CDC to provide a quick way to verify who’s gotten the shot.
Summit County Health Commissioner Donna Skoda says it’s a good idea to take a photo of both sides of your card, and save it in your phone or email it to yourself. But you still have options if the card is lost.
“Wherever you received your vaccine should have a record of it, so you should start with them first," Skoda said. "What we have at Summit County Public Health [is] if we vaccinated you, we can look in the state system and print you a copy of the record.
“The cards were just a quick way for CDC to be able to verify until you could actually get the information into the state system.”
And that applies to health departments in all 88 Ohio counties. Skoda says the departments can also usually provide your entire vaccination record.
You can get more information from the Statewide Immunization Information System at (800) 282-0546 or Immunize@odh.ohio.gov. The information request form for Summit County is here.
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