A Covid vaccine clinic accidentally gave out empty syringes instead of the real thing because of a staff blunder, it has been reported.
The mistake was said to have happened when a member of staff assumed a colleague had filled the syringes with a live vaccine.
In fact, when the appointments came through the doors of a Kroger clinic in Virginia, US the jab in the arm was just an empty shot.
According to news station WRIC, a company spokesperson said that 'less than 10' people were administered the dud vaccine.
Carrie Hawes, one of the patients to be given the empty jab, said she was shocked to receive the call Tuesday notifying her that she didn’t receive the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
She told WWBT news: “Talked to a manager right away and they explained that there had been a mistake made, that we had been given saline only.
"There was no vaccination material. My initial reaction was shock and surprise, and a little anxiety.”
The grocery store chain, which is said to have rolled out more than 830,00 shots across the US, apologized for the blunder which it called 'an honest mistake.'
In a statement the firm was reported to have said: "All impacted customers were contacted and have now received the COVID-19 vaccine.
"We apologize for this oversight and the inconvenience caused for these customers.”
It added that the mistake was 'immediately addressed' and that all vaccinators had gone on to be retrained and 'reminded of our current vaccination policies.'
According to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in the US more than 10 per cent of the population have now been fully inoculated against coronavirus, counting both doses.
The country has a population size of more than 328 million people.
