Six people mistakenly injected with saline instead of COVID-19 vaccine

Six people have been mistakenly injected with saline instead of a COVID-19 vaccine at a mass immunization clinic in Vaughan, Ontario last month.

Saline is used to dilute the vaccines prior to administering them, Mackenzie Health said in a statement posted on Twitter. The salt and water solution is harmless, but it won’t provide any protection against the virus.

“This should not have happened,” the hospital network said.

The saline shots were administered at the Mackenzie Health COVID-19 Vaccination Clinic on March 28, 2021. The people impacted have already been contacted.

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Mackenzie Health said it became aware of the problem through its quality assurance processes, and it contacted individuals who came to the clinic that day and tested them for antibodies to see who received the vaccine and who did not.

“We sincerely apologize for the error and for the uncertainty and concern this situation has caused,” Mackenzie Health said. “We have undertaken a full review of our processes and have implemented additional safeguards to prevent this from happening again.”