Thousands of Minnesota residents age 65 and older who signed up for the state’s COVID-19 pilot vaccination program received erroneous messages on Saturday – messages that raised questions about upcoming appointments.
The Minnesota Department of Health said that a message to about 20 people, informing that small group about a problem with their upcoming appointments, was erroneously sent by their supplier to a substantially larger group. The error included text messages and emails.
The thousands of people who were not supposed to receive the messages received a follow-up message, informing them of the error and emphasizing that their next vaccination appointments are still valid.
“We take full responsibility for the error that occurred earlier today, which resulted in thousands of Minnesotans receiving incorrect information about their vaccine appointment,” said the supplier, Primary.Health, in a statement sent to MPR News. “We corrected this error and communicated directly to the impacted Minnesotans that his appointment was confirmed as scheduled.
“We apologize to the State of Minnesota and all affected Minnesota residents and are taking immediate steps to ensure that this does not happen in the future.”
The wrong message came at the beginning of the second vaccination weekend in the state’s pilot program for residents age 65 and older.
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