Watsonville vaccination clinic registration canceled after people from out of county, under age of 65 take appointments

WATSONVILLE, Calif. (KION) A mass vaccination clinic in Watsonville shutdown after hundreds of ineligible people signed up to get a shot, delaying eligible Santa Cruz County residents from rightly getting one themselves.

Staff on Saturday found two thirds of the nearly thousand people who signed up were not eligible to get the COVID-19 shot. They found more than half were under the age of 65 and more than a hundred came from different parts of the state, some as far as LA and Yolo Counties.

"This registration link got shared all over the state, it seems like. And the people who are not eligible for the vaccine went ahead and filled up all the spots," said Jason Hoppin, a Santa Cruz County spokesperson.

The county says, unfortunately, the online registration -- provided by the state -- does not have any real way to screen out ineligible respondents. That means anyone could have signed up from anywhere. The result was a big mess.

"Because the platform can't selectively cancel appointments, we had to cancel everybody's appointment and then re-register manually the one third-plus people that were actually eligible," said Hoppin.

"If it's only assigned for here, then people from here are supposed to be the ones who get it," said Sergio Guerra, a Watsonville resident.

The county was able to get 500 eligible people to re-register and get vaccinated. But that is only half of the thousand they planned for.

"We could've distributed twice as many on that day if people had been following the rules. Unfortunately, they weren't," said Hoppin.

Thankfully, none of the vaccines went to waste, according to the county. County officials say people trying to get ahead in line for the shot is a nationwide problem. Convincing people to get a shot in the first place is yet another.

"It's a 50/50 because I really want to go back to school, but I don't know what affect I'm going to get from that vaccine," said Guerra.

The county says they are switching to a private provider to do their next vaccination clinic. While their registration process does ask you to verify your age, until the person actually shows up for the appointment, they will still really just have to take their word for it.

PREVIOUS ARTICLE: Registration for a mass vaccination clinic in Watsonville had to be canceled and reopened to a limited number of people after officials said people who were ineligible took many of the appointments.

Appointments for the clinic scheduled for Wednesday were opened up when they had about 1,000 left, and within 24 hours all of the slots were filled.

On Saturday evening, staff reviewed those who had registered for the clinic. They said more than half were under the age of 65 and more than 100 of the people who signed up lived as far away as Los Angeles or Yolo Counties. It is believed that the link to register for an appointment was shared widely.

"I look forward to the day where we don't have to do that, where everyone can get the shot and be done with it, but we're not there yet," said Dr. David Gillarducci.

Over the course of the rest of the weekend, officials worked to cancel online registration for the entire clinic and reach out to 300 of the people who were eligible to make sure they had access before filling the rest of the spots.

County spokesperson Jason Hoppin said, "Unfortunately, when you have this period of scarcity, which we hope won't last that long with the vaccine, if you jump the line, you're taking the vaccine from somebody who really needs it and can prevent illness and death."