Employees at a Walgreens store in North Carolina mistakenly injected people with saline rather than a COVID-19 vaccine, the company confirmed.
A spokesperson for Walgreens told local media outlets that a “limited number” received saline at its Monroe location, and those who were affected had been informed about the mistake.
“We are investigating what happened and have taken immediate steps to review our procedures with the location to prevent this from occurring again,” Walgreens said in a statement to local media over the weekend. It will not affect recipients’ second dose, the company added.
“These patients will later receive their second dose within the appropriate time frame.”
One patient, Lisa Strawn, told WCCB in Charlotte that she was told a pharmacist accidentally didn’t mix the vaccine, meaning saline was administered instead.
“I asked the guy, I said, ‘How did you figure out that we only got saline?’” she told WCCB. “And he said, ‘Well at 5, when she called me and said she had a lot of vaccine left over; what was she to do with it?’ and he said ‘You shouldn’t have any vaccine left over,’ so that’s how they discovered it.”
It’s not clear how many recipients got saline instead of the vaccine.
“I just thought it was important that people know, just be careful. You know, check behind them,” Strawn said.
Company officials didn’t immediately respond to a request by The Epoch Times for comment.
In March, a Kroger location in Virginia injected people with empty syringes instead of the COVID-19 vaccine. Officials with Kroger said they initially thought people who got the vaccine received saline but those syringes were empty.
