Some Delaware residents received the long-awaited COVID-19 vaccine at a mass vaccination event over the weekend – despite the fact that they are not yet eligible to be stabbed, according to state health officials.
At the mass vaccination event attended by state government John Carney, some Delaware who were at the Motor Vehicles Division in Dover on Saturday after the drive-through event received the vaccine, even though they were not a health worker or resident or staff. of a long-term care facility, groups that are part of phase 1A of the distribution and the only ones that get the jab at this time.
Those who are part of Phase 1B – those who are 65 or older and are front-line workers – are likely to receive the jab in the state by the end of the month, according to the Associated Press.
It is not clear how many of those ineligible received the vaccine over the weekend, but reports of such incidents led to a response from Delaware Speaker Pete Schwartzkopf.
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“We are still in Group 1a and the vaccines had to be given to health workers and first responders today,” Schwartzkopf said in a Facebook post on Saturday.
“A few people went through and had to be challenged, but were not mainly because the staff doing the vaccination were volunteers and did not have access to a database to verify that they were responding first,” he said. Schwartzkopf added. “Others showed up and got vaccinated because friends … called them or posted online and said they should get vaccinated because they got theirs.”
“By the end of the day, the initial reactions had subsided, and it was decided to try to get through to people aged 65 or older,” Schwartzkopf said in the post.
“The organizers wanted to use all the vaccine they had, so that they were immersed in group 1b and that Modern Maturity had to transfer about 100 elderly people,” he wrote, referring to a senior community center in Dover.
Reports from those not currently eligible to receive the vaccine at the weekend’s event also led to a response from the Delaware Department of Public Health, which said ‘protocols are being tightened’ for the event. lasts until Monday.
“Our colleagues at the Public Health Division are explaining what happened during today’s vaccination event in Dover. The protocols will be sharpened for Sunday and Monday’s events, and only those eligible for Phase 1A will be vaccinated,” health officials said in a statement. said a statement. Facebook. “We appreciate everyone who adheres to these protocols to ensure that our health workers and EMS staff are vaccinated so that we can move on to Phase 1B soon.”
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The news comes as the country surpassed the 11 million mark in terms of COVID-19 shots fired late last week – still much less than half the doses distributed, and days after the Trump administration countries to open up coronavirus vaccine distribution to broader groups. , including 65-year-olds and older, in an effort to expedite such efforts.
Of the more than 91,000 vaccines distributed in the state to date, about 31,090 have been administered, according to estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The Associated Press contributed to this report.