Fight between two nurses shuts down vaccine clinic

A Riverside County-run coronavirus vaccination clinic in Beaumont closed Friday morning after a fight between two female nurses, county officials said.

The incident, which delayed 245 appointments, occurred at the Albert A. Chatigny Senior Community Recreation Center. The clinic, at 1310 Oak Valley Parkway, is expected to reopen Monday.

The fight, reported about 10:16 a.m., involved a “personal issue between the two nurses,” said Marcedes Cashmer, a Beaumont police spokeswoman.

One nurse, who was taken to the hospital and later released, was cited on suspicion of assault but not jailed, said Cashmer, adding she did not have the nurse’s name.

The other nurse complained of pain but was not hospitalized, Cashmer said. Witnesses intervened in the altercation, she said.

Shane Reichardt, a county emergency management department spokesman, said via email that staff “was working to resolve” a personnel matter when “it escalated to a physical altercation between two contract nurses and staff intervened.”

“The clinic will remain closed for the remainder of the day,” Reichardt said Friday.

Both nurses were women, said Reichardt, who declined to release their names. No vaccines or equipment were damaged, he said.

“Some of the nurses were working their last day on their contract assignment, so it was decided to close the clinic and start with a fresh team on Monday,” Reichardt added.

The Chatigny clinic, which is open weekdays, is one of four fixed-site vaccination clinics run by the county’s public health department.

Last month, Riverside County administered its 1 millionth vaccine dose at the Beaumont center.