SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Jan. 13, 2021 (Gephardt Daily) — Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson acknowledged Wednesday morning that residents may have experienced issues with the health department’s vaccine scheduling website.
“We recognize our system for scheduling failed and are working to address,” Wilson tweeted at 8:18 a.m. “We apologize. Please stand by.”
The registration link, for those who are 70 and older and healthcare workers to sign up for a vaccine, went live at 8 a.m.
“Please be patient while the form loads; our server is experiencing an extremely high volume of traffic and it may take significant time for all fields, particularly the ‘Select Visit Date’ field, to be available,” the website says.
Salt Lake County issued a news release at 10:34 a.m., which reads: “At 8 a.m. this morning, tens of thousands of people simultaneously attempted to load the Salt Lake County Health Department’s COVID vaccination registration form; it could not handle that volume. After working quickly with the system programmer, the form was up and making reservations before 9 a.m. As of 10 a.m., 15,042 individuals had successfully registered.
“We appreciate your patience. The health department will continue to work with the system programmer to prevent any such problems in the future.”
Wilson added by way of the news release: “We are very sorry for this problem. The health department estimates there are approximately 70,000 Salt Lake County residents 70 and over. The health department has 30,000 appointments available through Feb. 27. That number of appointments is based on the number of doses we have been told we can expect to receive.”
Some residents tweeted in response to Wilson’s tweet at 8:18 a.m.; with one saying that her grandma registered but could not select a date or time, then did not get a confirmation page or email. Another resident reported that when her husband registered, there was no confirmation page and the site sent her back to the registration page. When she tried to re-enter, the page said her husband was registered. Another individual reported the site froze; still another said she was trying to call the health department to see if she successfully registered her father, but the phone lines were busy for more than 90 minutes.
Gephardt Daily will have more on this developing story as information is available.
