Creating, using and selling fake COVID-19 vaccination cards are considered illegal activities, the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Chicago warned ahead of Lollapalooza, one of the city’s biggest summer events.
To enter Lollapalooza, concert-goers must provide a printed copy of the COVID vaccine card, vaccine record or negative coronavirus test within 72 hours of entering.
In a Facebook Live event Thursday, Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said the FBI is again reminding residents that using a fraudulent COVID vaccine card to get into the music festival is illegal.
“As a reminder from the FBI if you make or buy a fake COVID-19 vaccination record card, you’re endangering yourself and you are breaking the law and they have been doing work on this around the country,” Arwady said.
The FBI sent a similar warning back in the spring as COVID vaccinations were increasing and cards more commonly required from establishments and events.
“Vaccination cards are intended to provide recipients of the coronavirus vaccine with important information regarding the type of vaccine they received and their dates of inoculation,” the alert stated in May. “The creation, purchase, or sale of vaccine cards by individuals is illegal and endangers public safety.”
This followed earlier warnings from the FBI and other organizations, which warned of fake vaccine cards being sold, including in Illinois. Listings for fraudulent cards have appeared on major online platforms such as Twitter, Instagram and eBay.
The FBI issued another special in the spring warning the public of making or buying fake vaccination cards.
“If you did not receive the vaccine, do not buy fake vaccine cards, do not make your own vaccine cards, and do not fill-in blank vaccination record cards with false information,” the warning from the FBI said. “By misrepresenting yourself as vaccinated when entering schools, mass transit, workplaces, gyms, or places of worship, you put yourself and others around you at risk of contracting COVID-19.”
Chicago’s largest music festival will be held at full capacity from July 29 to Aug. 1, organizers announced.
If a person tests positive for COVID within the 72 hour-period, organizers said the individual is allowed a refund by sending the order number and ticket details to info@lollapalooza.com.
For those who are not vaccinated against COVID-19, a mask is required while inside the festival at all times.
The festival comes at a time when the city is seeing its average daily number of new cases more than double in a matter of weeks.
Still, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the city’s top doctor both doubled down on their support of the event during a coronavirus update Tuesday.
“As you know from the time that it was first announced, we were really pleased to partner with Lollapalooza with their decision to require vaccination or negative tests for attendees and that certainly adds a level of complexity to the situation, but we want people to have a good time and we want this to be as safe as it can be,” Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said. “And so certainly we’ll be watching that just as we do any other gathering, but I am more concerned about the many people who have not chosen the COVID vaccine.”
Lollapalooza’s lineup for the 2021 festival in Chicago’s Grant Park this summer includes headliners like the Foo Fighters, Post Malone, Tyler the Creator and Miley Cyrus.
Other artists scheduled to perform include DaBaby, Marshmello, Illenium, Journey, Megan Thee Stallion and Roddy Ricch.
from NBC Chicago https://ift.tt/3BpTzNL
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