A nurse in Puebla has been suspended after she failed to correctly administer a Covid-19 vaccine to a woman on Thursday.
The nurse pierced the skin on the senior’s upper arm but didn’t inject her with a vaccine. The woman’s daughter recorded the incident on her phone and later posted it to social media.
Puebla Governor Miguel Barbosa confirmed Friday that the simulated vaccination occurred at the Northern General Hospital in the state capital.
The state Health Ministry contacted the affected woman’s family and made arrangements for her to receive her second required vaccine dose on Friday.
Barbosa told a press conference that authorities will determine whether the nurse made a mistake or failed to inoculate the woman on purpose. They will subsequently determine what punishment will apply, he said.
“Nothing will be hidden,” the governor declared. “We’re angry at this conduct of the nurse.”
Puebla Health Minister José Antonio Martínez García also expressed his indignation, declaring that the department he heads “condemns the act.”
He called on citizens to trust the brigades of health workers administering the Covid-19 shots but also urged recipients to be vigilant and make sure they are actually being injected with a vaccine-filled syringe.
There have been at least two other similar incidents in which seniors were injected with empty syringes at Covid-19 vaccine centers. One incident occurred in Ciudad Obregón, Sonora, in late March and the other in Mexico City in early April.
As of Thursday night, just under 22 million vaccine doses had been administered in Mexico, according to Health Ministry data.
Most of the shots have gone to health workers and people aged 60 and over but the government is now offering vaccines to people in the 50-59 age bracket.
