Neighbors ask older adults not to be surprised with the sale of supposed numbers to speed up the vaccination process. (Free Press Photo: María José Longo)
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In Quetzaltenango, a man was alerted to a man who tried to deceive the elderly who were lining up to be vaccinated at the covid-19 vaccination center, located at the Mesoamerican University, offering them numbers to expedite the process.
In Xela, the vaccination process has been complicated during the first days of phase 2, as there has been chaos due to the high demand; for example, older adults were observed to be unemployed, with gestures of despair, concern and confusion due to a delay of more than four hours.
Because the system does not work properly and appointment messages are not sent to users over 70 years of age, they have flocked to the vaccination center and to keep track, Health personnel distributed numbers.
Added to the crisis due to system failures, an unidentified man took advantage of the situation to offer shifts to facilitate access to the vaccine in exchange for money.
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“The crowd of people was very strong and access was difficult, but throughout this process of trying to enter the establishment, a person approaches and asks for the assigned number, saying that there was no vaccination record and that all the numbers were given. , but if we wanted to enter we had to pay for a number to have access and vaccinate my grandmother. The person did not indicate the amount and was not asked, because it was an illegal process and it seemed suspicious to us, “said the young man who reported the incident to the media, but preferred to hide his identity.
He added that such events should not be allowed, and he called on older adults not to be deceived; In addition, it requires the authorities to improve control at the vaccination center and avoid abnormal charges.
According to the victim, the subject presented himself as a municipal worker.
Marck Juárez, spokesman for the commune, urged those affected to report the incident to the 212 Office of Social Communication or to the number 7888 5243.
“The only municipal action in this second phase of vaccination is the support that is being given to the elderly through the provision of a municipal vehicle for the transfer, this is done in coordination with Cocodes from the urban and rural areas. No municipal employee participates in the vaccination process, therefore, no one is authorized to deliver tickets, much less to make a charge for this situation ”, explained Marck.
Salvador Soto, director of the Permanent Attention Center (CAP) of Xela, reported that he is unaware of the event and reiterated that the vaccine is free, as well as receiving a number for vaccination.
“Tell the population not to be fooled and to report here at the CAP and of course we will do the investigation to act. The vaccine is completely free. The platform has not worked as we would like, but we are vaccinating people over 70 years old. To have a better organization, numbers are delivered, ideally as planned, with appointments; however, so far this has not worked in Quetzaltenango and that is why numbers are given, ”said Soto.
On the second day of vaccination of phase 2, the first dose was applied to 510 people over 70 years of age, on the third day, the problems continued due to deficiencies in the system.
“It could be said that it is not a failure of the system as such, but that the system itself becomes congested,” said Juan Nájera, director of the Quetzaltenango Health area.
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