Published on August 30, 2021
Unusual Name Can Cause Problems in Registration for Vaccination against COVID-19
Thanks to the case of a complainant, whose identity could not be verified in the population record by the registration system for vaccination against COVID-19, we have found out that it might prove problematic in more than solely in an individual case. Despite the complainant disposes of both the Czech citizenship and personal identification number, and she filled in the data in the first step of registration correctly, the system did not allow her to continue. She was left without the PIN2 code and could not succeed in choosing the vaccination date. According to the Ombudsman´s findings, she is not the only one with a similar problem – the cause might have rested in her unusual name.
The Ombudsman was addressed by Ms Ha Van Doan, asking for help with dealing with an unpleasant situation. While making registration for vaccination against COVID-19, the system failed to let her continue after the first step, since it could not verify her in the population record. The data were filled in correctly, though, in accordance with her Czech national identity card.
Because the vaccination registration system was not able to verify her in the population record, she was instructed to address the contact place of CZECH Point: “There I was told, though, that in the Record they only have the same data as contained on my ID, and if it´s correct, then they can do nothing with it,” described Ms Doan in her complaint to the Ombudsman. She addressed the Foreign Police, too. There they could help her neither since she is not a foreigner, but a Czech citizen. She thus found herself in a catch-22 situation. “I can´t get vaccinated, because the system fails to identify me towards the Record, but at the office, I´m being told, that the record is okay”, summarized Ha Van Doan in her complaint.
Through an informal inquiry at the Department of Administrative Activities of the Brno City Municipality, which is as for the number of inhabitants the biggest registry office of residence in the Czech Republic, we have found out, that they have already faced similar problems in connection with vaccination so far. According to the officers there, there is no mistake in incorrect data of the population record and basic register.
“We managed to contact also the Institute of Health Information and Statistics of the Czech Republic and tried to find out, where the problem might be. Fortunately, it turned out, that it is not a systematic matter, affecting the Czech citizens, who have been granted citizenship in a relatively recent time, as the primary information indicated. The cause is relatively banal. Somewhere in between the first registration and forwarding the data to further related information systems, either the name or the surname, or potentially the date of birth, might be transcribed falsely. Subsequently, the system fails to identify the citizen correctly in the basic register,” explains Miloš Valášek, a lawyer at the Department of Public Order and Local Administration of the Ombudsman´s Office.
Eventually, Ha Van Doan succeeded in getting the PIN2 code on her own, when her data were corrected by hand.
Therefore, in case the people registering for vaccination receive information, that they cannot be provided with the PIN2 code, since the registration system for vaccination against COVID-19 was not able to identify them in accordance with the basic register, and they check the data to be correctly filled in according to their identity card in the registration process, then they should call line 1221 and ask for correcting the data from their operators.