COLORADO SPRINGS — For those who decide to get vaccinated against COVID-19, that proof of vaccination card is something you want to keep safe to prove you've gone through the process. In many situations it's still unclear when and where we may have to provide proof of vaccination cards, but what if you lose it?
Finding out you've lost your vaccination card would be a tough discovery after all of the work that goes into scheduling vaccination appointments and making the personal decision to get the shot. Lyla Kinsel lives in Florida and says she lost the one thing that could prove she did all this, her vaccination card.
"I did it and I own it, but trying to get it replaced has been a nightmare. Tell me how to do it. Somebody give me the information," said Kinsel.
Health officials in Colorado know there's a chance these vaccine cards will get damaged, destroyed, or even lost. So there is a process in place to replace vaccine cards using shot records the state is keeping. News 5 spoke with Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment Chief Medical Officer Dr. Eric France who says the state is keeping shot records for this very reason.
"The state does have an online immunization information registry and we've had that for decades. Think about all the families who have kids who need their shot records for school. Now add to it the work of keeping track of everybody who had the COVID-19 vaccine. So, we do have records of folks who have been vaccinated," said Dr. France.
Just like any important document you'll want to back it up. The CDC recommends taking a picture on your phone or a photocopy. A lot of people are laminating their cards and Staples and Office Depot will do it for free. Some are concerned lamination might blur the ink or make it hard to add booster shots. So you could laminate a copy instead.
Dr. France says says regardless of the policies set, having your vaccine card handy could be beneficial for businesses and consumers during their day to day interactions coming out of the pandemic.
"I need to put in new carpeting and I have some tile in my bathroom that needs to be worked on and if the person coming into my house could show me that they've been vaccinated I might feel more safe, or I may want to hire them over someone who didn't knowing they would be in my house for days working on something. So the private market will probably evolve and will want to have some type of certification for their employees maybe, or consumers might want to see that. So we'll see how that develops over the next six months," said Dr. France.
While the State of Colorado is able to replace a lost COVID-19 vaccination card, News5 is told the process could take several days because of all of the information that is needed to verify people's identity ahead of releasing the sensitive information.
If someone loses their vaccine card, they can reach out to the CIIS Help Desk and request a copy of their entire immunization record that would include any COVID-19 vaccines administered.
Direct link: CDPHE Immunization Record
