Misspelling of Moderna on vaccination card leads to tourist's arrest in Hawaii

Chloe Mrozak raised suspicion of airport screeners when she presented the card upon her arrival to Oahu. Photo / Supplied

A 24-year-old Illinois woman submitted a fake Covid-19 vaccination card to visit Hawaii with a glaring spelling error that led to her arrest: Moderna was spelled "Maderna", according to court documents.

In order to bypass Hawaii's 10-day traveller quarantine, the woman named as Chloe Mrozak in various media reports uploaded a vaccination card to the state's Safe Travels programme and arrived in Honolulu August 23 on a Southwest Airlines flight, the documents said.

"Airport screeners found suspicious errors ... such as Moderna was spelled wrong and that her home was in Illinois but her shot was taken at Delaware," Wilson Lau, a special agent with the Hawaii attorney general's investigation division, wrote in an email to a Delaware official who confirmed there was no vaccination record for the woman under her name and birth date.

This document provided by the Hawaii Attorney General's Office shows a fake Covid-19 Vaccination Record Card from a tourist visiting Hawaii. Photo / AP

The email is included in documents filed in court. Mrozak was charged with two misdemeanour counts of violating Hawaii's emergency rules to control the spread of Covid-19.

She had been in custody on US$2000 bail until a judge released her at a hearing on Wednesday and scheduled another hearing in three weeks, according the public defender's office.

In addition to the suspicious card, authorities determined that the travel information she provided listed she would be staying at a Waikiki Holiday Inn but didn't include a reservation number and return flight information, court documents said.

An assistant manager at the hotel confirmed to Lau that she didn't have a reservation. Lau said in the court document that he tried to call the number she listed, but her voicemail was full. He said he emailed her and didn't get a response.

Lau said he searched for her on Facebook and found a photo showing a "distinctive tattoo on her left hip area."

The tattoo helped authorities find Mrozak at a Southwest Airlines counter when she was trying to leave Honolulu on August 28, the court document said.

She showed her ID and vaccination card to Lau, who informed her she was being arrested for falsifying vaccination documents.

Other visitors to Hawaii have been arrested for fake vaccination cards, including a father and son from California, who appeared in court via Zoom on Wednesday and waived their rights to a jury trial.