SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Jan. 14, 2021 (Gephardt Daily) — The Salt Lake County Health Department issued an apology Wednesday night after accidentally sending out canceled-event notices to people who had signed up for COVID-19 vaccinations.
The mistake follows a technical glitch Wednesday morning when the online registration link for scheduling people ages 70 and older for vaccinations was overrun with thousands of requests.
Wednesday night it was a different problem, one that was human caused.
“Late this evening, we accidentally sent a cancellation notice to people scheduled for several vaccination events in late February,” the Salt Lake County Health Department said.
“This notice was an error; NO SCHEDULED EVENTS HAVE BEEN CANCELED. People who received the erroneous notice will receive a correction, if they have not already.
“We apologize profusely. The challenging morning today was caused by a technology problem with our scheduling vendor, but this evening’s mistake was human error.
“It has been a difficult day for our staff and for you, the people we serve, and we appreciate your patience and forgiveness.
Wednesday morning the system was overwhelmed, prompting Salt Lake County to issue a news release.
“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,” the UDoH said. “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.”
Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson added in a separate 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,” Wilson said.
*Correction: Gephardt Daily initially reported the canceled-event notices were issued by the Utah Department of Health.
