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The Mobile County Health Department confirmed on Thursday and again on Friday that it has distributed doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to people who are not eligible to receive one.
The doses were administered during a “soft opening” earlier this week from a scheduled mass vaccination clinic Saturday at the Alabama Cruise Terminal in downtown Mobile. And health officials will ensure that only eligible people receive a vaccine at that clinic.
“They were taking advantage of the situation,” said Mark Bryant, spokesperson for the Mobile County health department. “It was supposed to be by invitation only the other day.”
Dr Rendi Murphree, director of the Office of Disease Surveillance and Environmental Studies in the Mobile County Health Department, said in a Facebook update Thursday that “we haven’t been perfect” with smooth deployment of vaccine delivery.
It is not known how many people who were not eligible to be vaccinated had one during the soft opening events. The Department of Health will hold another Facebook update at 2:30 p.m. today.
“People who were not true about their age are misleading our screening officers by saying that they had special permission from the doctor’s office or the health department,” Murphree said, describing the people who got a vaccine this week but were not eligible for one. “We are working to refine these processes to ensure that the vaccines we administer are in the current Phase 1A, to all first responders and to people 75 years of age and older.”
The Saturday Mass Vaccination Clinic will be for people aged 75 and over from 8:30 a.m. until 1:30 p.m. From 1:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., first responders can be vaccinated.
Bryant said the Department of Health will make sure people “won’t even be allowed in” the clinic on Saturday at the cruise ship terminal, and Murphree said the Department of Health is recommending those eligible to receive the vaccine, aged 75 and up, limit the number of people accompanying them upon their arrival at the terminal.
“We are expecting long waits,” she said. “If you are in the age brackets (eligible for a vaccine), try not to bring a lot of people who are not eligible for the vaccinations. We try to keep the numbers low in order to promote social distancing. “
Bryant said the smooth opening events were necessary to ensure the department was ready to handle the distribution of 1,000 Moderna vaccines on Saturday. She said 500 of the vaccines will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis to people over 75. He said people will need to bring the appropriate ID with them before they can receive a vaccine.
He also denounced allegations raised in a television report that the vaccine was distributed to anyone who came to a “secret clinic”. He said the wife of Mobile County health officer Dr Bernard Eichold had not yet received a vaccine and that “if we gave one to everyone we wanted she would have received the vaccine.” She waits their turn like everyone else.
The cruise terminal clinic represents the first mass vaccination effort on the Alabama coast since vaccines became available before the Christmas holidays.
It comes after reports surfaced illustrating how dismal Alabama’s inoculation rate was during the initial deployment. Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and South Carolina have less than 2% of their populations on the first dose of the vaccine, according to data from the states and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Mobile City and USA Health officials on Thursday opened a drive-thru vaccination clinic at the Mobile Civic Center. But the clinic is setting up follow-up appointments for people who receive their second dose of Pfizer vaccine, which is the only vaccine this site currently manages. It is not known when the appointment vaccinations will begin.
People who show up for a vaccine on Saturday do not need to be residents of Mobile County. But health officials hope they can focus more on county residents in the coming weeks.
A Baldwin County vaccination clinic will be available from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on January 19, 21, 26 and 28 at the Daphne Civic Center. The county, working with the Alabama Department of Public Health, will allow on-site parking and registration for residents aged 75 and older, first responders and healthcare workers.
Officials said they plan to vaccinate at least 60 people per hour, two days a week, for the next two weeks.
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