by Brent Pin­heiro

In­ter­na­tion­al Vac­ci­na­tion Cards, aka Yel­low Cards (or Carte Jaunes if you're feel­ing fan­cy), have ex­ist­ed since the 1940s. They've been used through­out the years to show proof of vac­ci­na­tion against dan­ger­ous dis­eases like cholera, yel­low fever, and small­pox. In fact, ICVP cards were used in the fight against, and even­tu­al erad­i­ca­tion of small­pox.

In the past few months, we’ve seen sev­er­al coun­tries an­nounce COVID-19 vac­cine re­quire­ments for en­try. Those head­ing to Mi­a­mi Car­ni­val this week though, you on the in­side... the US pol­i­cy re­quir­ing adult in­ter­na­tion­al trav­ellers to be ful­ly vac­ci­nat­ed comes in­to ef­fect in ear­ly No­vem­ber. With no dig­i­tal sys­tem cur­rent­ly in place, Trin­bag­o­ni­ans will need to use a WHO In­ter­na­tion­al Cer­tifi­cate of Vac­ci­na­tion or Pro­phy­lax­is (ICVP) to be able to show proof of COVID-19 vac­ci­na­tion when trav­el­ling in­ter­na­tion­al­ly. Here’s how to get one in Trinidad.

Step 1. Gath­er your doc­u­ments

On an en­ve­lope (let­ter size works best), clear­ly print your full name, con­tact num­ber, and email ad­dress. In the en­ve­lope place the fol­low­ing:

A copy of the bio­da­ta page of your pass­port.

A copy of your lo­cal im­mu­ni­sa­tion card. This is the black and white card is­sued at the vac­ci­na­tion sites or health cen­tres. Pro­vide a copy of both the front page and the in­side where the proof of COVID-19 vac­ci­na­tion is.

Your trav­el itin­er­ary in the form of a valid tick­et for up­com­ing trav­el. For the mo­ment, cards are on­ly be­ing is­sued for up­com­ing trav­el.

An ex­ist­ing ICV card where ap­plic­a­ble. If you don’t have one, one will be pro­vid­ed.

Tip: Check your vac­ci­na­tion card be­fore­hand and en­sure that it is stamped, has a batch num­ber next to each covid vac­cine dose ad­min­is­tered and a sig­na­ture next to each dose. If any of those are miss­ing, go back to where you got vac­ci­nat­ed and ask for it to be cor­rect­ed*. The CMOH of­fice will not is­sue an ICVP if your vac­ci­na­tion is in­com­plete.

The International Card Dropbox at the St George West CMOH office. Photo by Anisto Alves

Step 2. Drop off your doc­u­ments

The pro­ce­dure for drop­ping off doc­u­ments varies de­pend­ing on the CMOH of­fice. For ex­am­ple, St George West has a drop­box out­side of the en­trance to the build­ing. St George Cen­tral’s drop­box is in­side the build­ing. An at­ten­dant there checks doc­u­ments be­fore sub­mis­sion. Do not seal the en­ve­lope be­fore­hand. Wait till you get to the CMOH of­fice and find out what sys­tem is in place.

The process usu­al­ly takes 3-5 busi­ness days, but this can change based on the date of trav­el. When I dropped mine off, I got it back in three days. In cas­es of emer­gency trav­el, it may be pos­si­ble to get it processed faster.

TIP: You must vis­it the CMOH of­fice that serves the area that you re­side. Lo­ca­tions and con­tact num­bers are list­ed on the Min­istry of Health web­site. Of­fices are open Mon­day to Fri­day from 8 am to 4 pm.

Example of a completed and verified vaccination card. Photo by Brent Pinheiro

Step 3. Col­lect your cer­tifi­cate

Re­vis­it the CMOH of­fice five days lat­er for your doc­u­ments (or on the date you were giv­en). You will re­ceive ei­ther a brand-new ICVP card if you sub­mit­ted on­ly a lo­cal vac­ci­na­tion card, or your ex­ist­ing ICVP card will be ver­i­fied and up­dat­ed. I would say call in ad­vance to en­sure that the doc­u­ments are ready, but calls to some CMOH of­fices went unan­swered for hours when I tried call­ing, so... top up your phone and may the odds be ever in your favour "Hunger Games salute".

TIP: Un­til a glob­al­ly ac­cept­ed dig­i­tal ser­vice is avail­able, this is the main form of vac­ci­na­tion proof you’ll have for in­ter­na­tion­al trav­el. Get a pro­tec­tor for your card to pre­vent ac­ci­den­tal spills or un­ex­pect­ed rains from ru­in­ing the doc­u­ment. Plas­tic pro­tec­tors are avail­able for as lit­tle as $8 in POS. Pick up an ex­tra one for your lo­cal im­mu­ni­sa­tion card too... just in case some­one gets a lit­tle too lit while you’re out in the safe zones.

*I reached out to the Min­istry of Health for clar­i­fi­ca­tion on what some­one should do if their im­mu­ni­sa­tion card is miss­ing in­for­ma­tion and if the lo­ca­tion where they were vac­ci­nat­ed is now closed. The ar­ti­cle will be up­dat­ed once that in­for­ma­tion is pro­vid­ed.