The Public Health Division said after Saturday’s vaccination event that screening would be “reinforced” for vaccination events on Sunday and Monday, and those not in the state’s high priority phase 1A, which is limited to health professionals and long-term residents and staff, can be rejected.
It is unclear how ineligible people were allowed to get the vaccine at Saturday’s drive-thru event at the Motor Vehicle Division in Dover. Carney’s office classified the event as a “Phase 1A Vaccination Clinic” as “Delaware ‘runs to vaccinate individuals in Phase 1A”.
Officials said earlier that phase 1B, targeting key frontline workers and people aged 65 and over, was expected to start later this month.
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“We are still in Group 1a and vaccines today should be given to healthcare professionals and first responders,” Mayor Pete Schwartzkopf said in a Facebook post on Saturday.
“Some people passed and should have been challenged, but it was not mainly because the team that makes the vaccination is made up of volunteers and they did not have access to a database to check if they were the first to respond,” added Schwartzkopf. “Others came and were vaccinated because friends … called them or posted online and said to come and get vaccinated because they had taken theirs.”
Towards the end of the event, the number of first respondents who arrived decreased, so the decision was made to try to get some people aged 65 and over to pass, “said Schwartzkopf in the post.
“The organizers wanted to use all the vaccine they had, so they plunged into group 1b and made Modern Maturity bring in about 100 seniors,” he wrote, referring to a community center for seniors in Dover.
Andrea Wojcik, a spokesperson for the Public Health Division, said in an email on Sunday that, to test the logistics and vaccination process of the population aged 65 and over once the state moves to Phase 1B, and to using the vaccine doses available, DPH has asked a small number of organizations with members of the elderly to attend drive-thru vaccination events held in Dover until Monday.
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Wojcik said in a subsequent e-mail that the technology being tested was for registering and managing vaccines in health facilities.
“The misinformation was spread through social networks and word of mouth, which caused some people to go out and follow the line,” she wrote.
Wojcik did not explain why the authorities did not announce the test in advance or when they invited senior groups to participate.
“The select group of 65 and older has been included to help test a technology project that will be used to register and process vaccinations in the next phase,” wrote Wojcik. “In addition, due to the increased risk of allergic reactions and more involved medical history, it may take longer to process a person aged 65 and over through the vaccination process, including potentially longer observation times after the vaccine is administered , and DPH wanted to review this effect on the clinical drive-through process, again in preparation for the next phase.
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