City officials in Pasadena, California, revised plans for the area’s largest COVID-19 vaccination site on Thursday, after hundreds of ineligible workers in the news and production industries managed schedules, a spokeswoman confirmed to Fox News. .
Pasadena planned to vaccinate 1,500 local qualified seniors and other essential workers at the Pasadena City College clinic this week, but a link to vaccination applications sent to thousands of eligible individuals leaked quickly, and within an hour of its release, hundreds of ineligible individuals declared spots in a state system, according to city spokeswoman Lisa Derderian.
The spokeswoman said a Los Angeles Times reporter flagged the issue, which gave authorities more time to conduct an audit and reduce the situation involving hundreds of ineligible individuals who can reach the vaccination site.
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While city officials worked on the system’s back-end, they found about 900 ineligible applications, most involving people who did not live or work in Pasadena, which is one of the criteria.
The system cannot automatically cancel ineligible applications, which required time, effort and additional staff for additional verification, said Derderian. A health official advised authorities to temporarily close the city’s college website, and authorities have since contacted hundreds of seniors and key staff to move the operation to a private location on Thursday, avoiding delays in consultations.
“For people to call skipping the line, it is not fair especially with the elderly that many of them have been isolated, have not seen children and grandchildren for months, probably a year ago now and they are looking forward to it,” Derderian told Fox News in an interview. “This is something that will help them mentally and physically to get life back to normal.”
In addition to the application process, employees also assist eligible persons with transportation for vaccination consultations and follow-up to monitor adverse effects.
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The spokeswoman said the ineligible workers were from a wide range of sectors, but specifically mentioned soap production companies, video streaming companies and news media. Some registrations involved people who lived more than an hour away.
“We ask people to be patient, wait their turn, whether intentional or not, people generally know what level they are on, it’s in the media every day and therefore they know when they qualify, so we need people to do the thing right, be fair, “said Derderian.
Derderian said that some producers called upset, citing the need for vaccination due to close contact with others through work. However, the clinic will adhere to state mandates regarding eligibility, she said.