An Italian man has tried to dodge getting a Covid jab by using a fake arm, according to reports.
The man in his 50s presented health workers in Biella, a town close to Turin in the north-western Piedmont region of Italy, with a fake arm made of silicon.
Initially, the health worker did not notice anything odd but after a closer inspection was rumbled after the medic asked him to take his shirt off.
With his plan foiled, the man - who has not been named - then tried to persuade the health worker to turn a blind eye.
“I felt offended as a professional,” Filippa Bua told La Repubblica.
“The colour of the arm made me suspicious and so I asked the man to uncover the rest of his left arm. It was well made but it wasn’t the same colour.”
The man said to her: “Would you have imagined that I’d have such a physique?”
She told La Stampa she could not see the man’s veins.
She said: “At first I thought I made a mistake, that it was a patient with an artificial arm.”
The unnamed man was reported to local police on Thursday night.
“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.
It comes a week after Italy announced measures will see unvaccinated people barred from a host of social, cultural and sporting activities.
The country has seen a significant rise in appointments for first-time jabs since announcing plans for the “super green pass” which takes effect from December 6.
The pass requires people to prove they are vaccinated or have recovered from Covid-19 to access cinemas, theatres, gyms, nightclubs, ski-lifts and stadiums, as well as to be served indoors at bars and restaurants.
