Riverside County addresses stolen COVID-19 vaccines from Indio clinic
An investigation continues into the disappearance of three vials of the coronavirus vaccine that went missing from the Indio Community Health Center.
We broke the news of the theft on Thursday.
News Channel 3’s Dani Romero has more on what the county is saying now about the ongoing investigation.
People go to great lengths to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Penny Boehnm was waiting outside Indio Community Health Center to get her second shot.
“It was very difficult," said Boehnm. "I am pretty computer savvy and it took many so many different tries to finally get through.”
Indio Police are investigating how three Moderna vaccine vials were apparently stolen from the clinic. Those three vials contained about 30 doses with a value of about $1,500.
“I find out that outrageous there are some desperate people out there but they get the three vials where do they get the needles how are they going to administer that are they going to sell it for money," said Boehnm.
Authorities said the vials were delivered to this clinic last Wednesday, February 17th and the next day, after an inventory check, they had disappeared.
But it wasn’t until a full week later, after News Channel 3 started asking questions that county staff called the police to report it.
“That's part of the review process that I was discussing earlier in that everything from when it was learned that it was missing and how it was communicated up and everything else, that's part of the review process now," said Jose Arballo, Senior Public Information Specialist for Riverside County.
According to police, the county was backtracking to find the vials before reporting them missing. We asked about the safety measures in place.
“If you start talking about the changes you made all that's going to do is provide more information for those that might want to do something to prevent you from getting the vaccination at our clinics and into people's arms," said Arballo.
The case is still an ongoing investigation. The county explained there aren’t any other vials that have gone missing in Riverside County. The county told us no vaccine appointments were missed.
