EBAY has responded after further Covid vaccine cards which are issued to those by the NHS were spotted being sold for profit.

The online giant said it was swift in removing a listing, which appeared to show a user selling 'blank' cards including postage for a staggering £54 each.

It comes after a Northern Echo probe into the sale of vaccine cards, before digital 'vaccine passports' were created, found people selling the cards for profit.

Read more: Investigation uncovers people selling NHS Covid vaccine cards on Ebay for profit

At the time, Ebay confirmed such sales had breached its policy and removed a listing which had seen almost 80 purchased at £5 each in less than 24 hours.

But earlier this week, another listing for an NHS Covid vaccine card appeared with one seller suggesting the item could be sold 'blank' and as a 'collectors' item.'

The Northern Echo:

The listing, which appeared to show one had already been sold in the last 24 hours, listed the item at £49.99 plus £3.99 for postage.

The sale of such cards on Ebay was previously criticised as a North East MP weighed in, while some slammed sellers for trying to "profiteer" from the sale of NHS documents.

It is understood that a small number of venues such as bars and pubs have previously asked customers for their proof of vaccination. 

In a statement last night, Ebay said that it employs algorithms which detect listing of vaccine cards, but admitted some sellers had been able to "circumvent" its automatic processes. 

A spokesperson said: "Gov.UK states that NHS vaccine cards cannot be used to demonstrate vaccine status.

"Therefore these cannot be used to gain any privileges (for example travel). Those purchasing cards like this would find they have no official use.

"However, we do ban any attempt to resell Government documents for personal profit and have block filter algorithms in place to stop these cards being sold.

"Sometimes opportunistic sellers attempt to circumvent our filters, but when they do our policy teams remove the listings quickly.

"This is what happened in this case, and when The Northern Echo contacted us, there were none of these listings for sale on eBay."

In response to the sale of Covid vaccine cards on auction sites, the Department of Health previously said they should not be being sold or distributed outside the NHS vaccine programme. 

A spokesperson said: “As with other vaccination programmes, a vaccine record card is issued to patients with the relevant details about their vaccination, including the date of their vaccination and their vaccine type.

“A record card is not an immunity certification and these cards shouldn’t be sold or distributed outside of the vaccination programme.”