On 6 May 2021, Maya residents waited their turn for the AstraZeneca vaccine at the municipal hall in San Pedro Sacatepéquez, Guatemala Department. A Reuters photograph and caption identify the place, date and purpose of the waiting. On 27 November that year, Guatevisión reported another long line at Plaza de la Constitución in the capital, where a registration-system failure prolonged the wait.
Together, the records show at least two kinds of distance between a person and an injection. Outside the capital, reaching a venue can involve geographic and informational barriers. At a large urban site, the distance may become time spent after arrival, waiting for a digital system to function. The length of a visible line cannot reveal everyone who was unable to reach it in the first place.
Even so, taking turns is concrete evidence that a vaccination policy reached everyday places. Putting the municipal hall beside the capital's central square reveals how the same dose could be separated from recipients by different obstacles in different communities.