Please jab my fake arm, signora

A Italian man who wanted a coronavirus vaccine certificate without actually having the jab tried to play the system by presenting health workers with a fake arm, an official said yesterday.

Despite the realistic skin colour, nobody was fooled by the silicone limb, and the man – in his 50s – was reported to local police following the incident on Thursday night in Biella, northwest Italy.

“The case borders on the ridiculous, if it were not for the fact we are talking about a gesture of enormous gravity,” the head of the Piedmont regional government, Albert Cirio, said in a statement on Facebook.

The fake arm incident comes ahead of a tightening of the rules on Monday in Italy for people who have not yet been vaccinated against Covid by issuing a “Super Green Pass” to those vaxxed.