The Department of Health said after Saturday’s vaccination event that screening would be “tightened” for vaccination events on Sundays and Mondays, and those not in the state’s top priority Stage 1A, which is limited to health workers and long-term residents. and staff, could be rejected.
It is unclear how ineligible people were allowed to receive the vaccine at Saturday’s drive-thru event at the Division of Motor Vehicles in Dover. Carney’s office announced the event as a “Phase 1A Vaccination Clinic” as “Delaware ‘sprints’ to vaccinate individuals in Phase 1A.”
Officials have previously said Phase 1B, targeting key primary care workers and people 65 and older, was expected to begin by the end of the month.
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“We are still in Group 1a and the vaccines should be given to health professionals and first responders today,” House Speaker Pete Schwartzkopf said in a Facebook post on Saturday.
“A few people went ahead and should have been challenged, but that was not primarily because the staff performing the vaccination are volunteers and they didn’t have access to a database to verify they were first responders,” Schwartzkopf added. . “Others arrived and got vaccinated because friends … called them or posted them online and told them to come and get vaccinated because they got it from them.”
By the end of the event, the number of first responders arriving had slowed, so it was decided to try and get some people 65 or older through, ”Schwartzkopf said in the post.
“The organizers wanted to use all the vaccine they had, so they went into hiding in group 1b and had Modern Maturity bring about 100 seniors,” he wrote, referring to a senior community center in Dover.
Andrea Wojcik, a spokeswoman for the Department of Public Health, said in an email Sunday that DPH has a small number of organizations with senior members coming to vaccination events held in Dover through Monday.
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Wojcik said in a subsequent email that the technology being tested is intended to record and manage vaccinations on rides through clinics.
“Misinformation was spread through social media and word of mouth, causing some people to come out and go through the line,” she wrote.
Wojcik did not explain why officials did not announce the tests in advance or when they invited senior groups to attend.
“The select group of 65 and older were included to assist in a trial of a technology project that will be used in the next phase to register and process vaccinations,” Wojcik wrote. Also, because of an increased risk of allergic reactions and more involved medical history, it may take longer to process a person 65 or older through the vaccination process, including possibly longer observation times after the vaccine is administered, and DPH wanted that revised effect on the drive-through clinic process, again in preparation for the next phase.
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