Report: State warned CVS was vaccinating out-of-staters

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - More New York residents than Connecticut residents had been vaccinated at a CVS by the time state officials visited the location in February, according to a published report.

Health officials had been warned days earlier that New York residents were lining up at the CVS in Waterford to get vaccinated, according to documents and emails obtained by the Connecticut Mirror under freedom of information laws.

By the time officials visited the store, 318 people with New York addresses had been vaccinated there, compared to 301 Connecticut residents who had received shots, according to records reviewed by the newspaper. Residents from 10 other states also had received vaccines.

Many of the New York residents had taken advantage of a computer glitch to get appointments, and had typed in Long Island zip codes and were directed to the Waterford site.

On the day health officials visited the store, they found 10 people from Long Island in line to get vaccinated. None of them were eligible under state guidelines at the time, which restricted vaccinations to first responders and people over 75, according to the news outlet.

Police were called when some of the New Yorkers refused to leave the line, but no arrests were made.

More than two weeks after the visit, state health officials instructed CVS not to honor second vaccine appointments for people who had been vaccinated in error at the Waterford site, but instead to find them doses in their state of residence, according to emails reviewed by the news outlet.

A CVS spokesperson told the news outlet the company has since changed its website to make sure vaccine recipients meet eligibility requirements, and worked directly with patients who had received their first shot at the Waterford store to make sure they received their second shots in their home states under applicable guidelines.

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This story has been updated to correct the news outlet that reported on out-of-state-residents getting vaccinated at a pharmacy in Waterford. It was the Connecticut Mirror, not the New Haven Register.