It’s the end of an era for a once-critical pandemic document: The ubiquitous white COVID-19 vaccination cards will be on their way out the door.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has stopped printing new COVID-19 cards because the federal government no longer distributes the vaccine.
The federal government shipped more than 980 million cards between late 2020, when the first vaccines were released, and May 10, according to the latest available data from the CDC.
Federal and local health officials say the days of tucking the cards into purses and wallets to gain entry to festivals, bars, and restaurants are largely over, so they don’t expect the discontinuation of the cards to be a particularly big change. If you’ve kept your card, it’s still valid as proof of vaccination. Otherwise, just like any other vaccine, people who need their COVID-19 vaccination records will need to request them.