Doctor issued jab passes without checks

Fiona Chow fiona.chow@scmp.com

South China Morning Post
May 17, 2025
Accused admits making Covid-19 vaccine certificates without full diagnosis

A doctor has become the first practitioner among seven facing government accusations to be convicted over issuing Covid-19 vaccination exemption certificates without making a proper medical diagnosis.


Appearing at the District Court yesterday, 62-year-old Dr Wong Ping-leung pleaded guilty to the offence of issuing certificates without conducting proper checks between February and June of 2022.


The city had a “vaccine pass” scheme in place at the time. Under the policy, members of the public needed to have received the necessary coronavirus jabs to enter shopping centres, restaurants and other public premises.


Exemptions were granted to those diagnosed with specific medical conditions or at risk of a severe allergic reaction to the Covid-19 vaccines. But they were required to obtain a certificate from a practising doctor.


In September 2022, Wong was among seven doctors accused by the government of failing to follow the Department of Health’s guidelines and issuing certificates without conducting proper medical consultations or examining patients’ medical records.


As part of the guidance, general practitioners needed to confirm the jab was unsuitable for patients before providing the certificates.


Prosecutors yesterday cited official figures showing that individual general practitioners at private clinics issued, on average, 38 certificates each between February and November that year.


But Wong confirmed to the court that he had issued 6,635 certificates, including more than 900 certificates in April 2022 alone, followed by nearly 3,000 in May and another 2,000 in June.


He is the first of the seven accused doctors to be convicted after pleading guilty to four counts of access to a computer with dishonest intent, referring to his use of the government system to generate the certificates.


Wong, who had practised medicine for more than 30 years, fell under suspicion after four patients who obtained certificates from him between April and June of 2022 told police their consultations with the doctor had been brief, in some cases lasting only about a minute.


All four went on to aid the police investigation.


One said he had received a certificate after telling the defendant he had a family history of heart disease and was concerned about the risks of Covid-19 vaccination, adding that Wong did not carry out any medical examinations.


Another said she was pregnant and had a rash on her face at the time, with Wong also conducting no medical checks and only writing “allergy” as the reason for the exemption certificate.


The other two said they were not properly examined either.


The court also heard that about 90 per cent of Wong’s patients during that period went to him specifically to get exemption certificates, with the defendant charging up to HK$500 per consultation.


Wong’s lawyer said his client stopped issuing the documents right after noticing an alert popping up in the system that warned him that doctors had a legal responsibility when issuing the certificates.


The defence added that patients directly told Wong why they felt they qualified for the certificates, with the doctor complying with their wishes without performing any medical examinations.


But Judge Kwok Wai-kin asked: “It doesn’t take a doctor to know that it was wrong to do so, right?”


Wong’s lawyer urged the court to consider community service rather than sending the doctor to prison, arguing he had been disgraced, suffered emotional distress due to the case and had stopped practising medicine since his arrest. But Kwok turned down the request and scheduled sentencing for June 5.


Dr Annie Choi Suk-mui, another of the accused medical practitioners, appeared at the same court for allegedly issuing vaccination exemption certificates without conducting thorough checks.


The court heard she had issued 14,385 certificates between January and September 2022, with prosecutors saying more than 12,000 only listed “vaccine phobia” as the reason for the exemption.


Prosecutors said Choi typically only consulted patients for a few minutes each time before signing the certificates, with long queues being spotted outside her clinic in Yuen Long at that time.


She and her husband, Pak Wai-hung, also face charges of money laundering. The court heard that more than HK$700,000 in cash was paid into the clinic’s account between April and September of 2022.


Prosecutors said Choi and her husband had opened a joint account around that time, which recorded nearly 100 cash transfers of more than HK$7 million. They argued these were the proceeds from issuing the certificates, noting no transactions involving the account were recorded after Choi was arrested in September 2022.


Her trial is expected to continue for two more weeks.


Among the remaining six, Dr Tai Kong-shing pleaded not guilty and will stand trial in March. Dr Chan Hoi-yuk was placed on a police wanted list in March 2022.


6,635


The number of exemptions issued by Wong Ping-leung. The average between February and November 2022 was 38 per doctor

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