A doctor in the German state of Saxony was arrested on Tuesday, as part of an investigation into fraudulent COVID-19 health certificates. The 66-year-old woman has been accused of exchanging false health exemptions for money.

According to a police statement, the doctor earned €12,500 ($13,300) as part of the illegal activity. The arrest warrant accuses her of issuing some 162 exemption certificates to individuals who should not have qualified for them. 

These included certificates to exempt people from wearing masks and to exempt them from being vaccinated or tested at establishments that required this for entry.

Additionally, the doctor allegedly also provided health certificate exemptions for individuals to require saliva COVID-19 tests, bypassing the nasal swab, whenever they needed to take a test.

The investigation is ongoing. Authorities also searched the woman's home amid the arrest, seizing evidence such as a cellphone and large sums of money in cash.

The arrest comes after authorities recorded a sharp increase in 2022 in the trade of forged vaccination certificates, which individuals used to bypass vaccination requirements at a time when most restaurants and other service-related businesses had put them in place.

One pharmacy employee from the city of Munich was found to have made €100,000 by selling more than 500 fraudulent vaccination certificates on the darknet.

jcg/msh (dpa, AFP)