A Hong Kong doctor has been jailed for nine months for issuing Covid-19 vaccination exemption certificates to four people without making a proper medical diagnosis, as a court heard how he raked in more than HK$4.6 million (US$585,980) from those who wanted to avoid the inoculations.
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The District Court on Friday sentenced Dr Wong Ping-leung for his dishonest use of the government’s electronic health record system to generate the certificates at his clinic in Chai Wan’s Hing Wah Plaza between April and June 2022.
Judge Kwok Wai-kin said the 62-year-old was blinded by greed, noting that he had made more than HK$4.6 million in consultation fees in just 4½ months from thousands of residents who wanted the exemptions.
The judge also slammed the accused for undermining the government’s effort to combat the pandemic, as he rejected the defence’s request to sentence him to community service.
Wong is the first to be sanctioned by a court after police accused seven doctors of fraudulently issuing vaccination exemption certificates without observing the Department of Health’s guidelines.
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The certificates were part of the government’s vaccine pass scheme to boost the inoculation rate by limiting the mobility of those who were unvaccinated. The scheme ran from February to December 2022.