Botched Vaccination Records

WINNIPEG - The Manitoba government says it’s continuing to respond to thousands of questions about immunization records.

The province says nearly 1.7 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in Manitoba so far, and the government has 12,000 open inquiries about vaccination records, after nearly 27,000 were reported as missing or incomplete.

Vaccine Implementation Task Force co-lead Johanu Botha says the main issue is the scope and size of the vaccination campaign, as many thousands of Manitobans enter data about themselves into the system, which then must be processed in several stages. The task force has a standard inquiry timeline of one week, but officials say an influx of immunizations caused a backlog.

Botha says, although the issues such as botched records represent only one or two per cent of the records, a large team is continuing to work through the backlog, answering questions, and fixing data that may need to be corrected.

The province’s COVID-19 Immunization Record Request form clarifies that an immunization record is different from a proof of immunization card. A QR code-based digital proof of immunization card is what is used for travel, visiting personal care homes and hospitals, and entry into sports and entertainment venues, restaurants, bars, and other businesses, not an immunization record.