Salt Lake County Residents Frustrated With COVID-19 Vaccine Registration Problems

The Salt Lake County Department of Health’s online registration for COVID-19 vaccinations encountered major problems on Wednesday morning, leaving older residents and their families frustrated and unhappy.

When registration opened on Wednesday, “tens of thousands of people simultaneously attempted to load the Salt Lake County Department of Health’s COVID vaccination registration form; he couldn’t handle that volume, ”county officials wrote in a statement. “After working quickly with the system programmer, the form was in place and reservations by 9 am”

By 10 am, 15,042 people had registered for 30,000 slots, according to the statement. There are approximately 70,000 residents aged 70 and over in Salt Lake County.

“This number of appointments is based on the number of doses we have been told we can expect to receive,” Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson said in the statement.

“We appreciate your patience. The health department will continue to work with the system programmer to avoid such problems in the future,” the statement said.

The hold-up annoyed residents who were waiting for access to the vaccine.

“It was very embarrassing,” said Jen Kious, a resident of Salt Lake City. “I was looking forward to trying to get both my 80 year old parents vaccinated. I got up at 8 a.m. and it didn’t work.

Kenneth Sperling said filling out most of the online form was’ straightforward ‘, but’ the problem is when you scroll down to the bottom of the page and click sign up it says, ‘Select date to visit’ . There is no box on the form for a visit date. “

“You get everything filled out, you hit submit, then you’re stuck in cyberspace,” he said.

Kious has encountered the same problem and others. She said she forgot to enter her parents’ gender and was flagged – and when she tried to add it, all other information she had previously entered was erased.

Kious said she saw changes on the page as she tried to register. “They are clearly trying to solve this problem.”

On a subsequent enrollment attempt, she said, the visit date request came before the rest of the form, “but when we got to the end and clicked register he went gave an error statement saying: ‘Maximum number for this Date.’ So that had obviously given us already full times.

When she tried another date she got a message telling her she was already signed up. “So I don’t know if I’m registered or not. … I have the utmost respect for the public health department. They have worked incredibly hard during this pandemic. I wouldn’t want to criticize them. But it’s very frustrating because I went to great lengths to protect my parents.

Diane Orr said the process was “unclear” to seniors trying to register. “I’m 76, but I’m trying to help people in their 80s. They all tried to phone this morning, but of course it’s busy.

She directed the seven octogenarians to the county website, but they ran into the same issues. “People are confused. You fill out the form, and then there’s no information on where to go from there, ”Orr said. “I would love to see people – especially in this age group – not get caught out by all of this.”

Sperling said he was able to register successfully around 9:15 am; Orr said she continued to have problems until noon.

John Keahey, a former staff member of the Salt Lake Tribune, has encountered similar issues. “When I finished the form, it told me that the time I had chosen was not available,” he said. “I returned a couple of times in response to ‘not available’ messages and when I selected the third, the form disappeared. I don’t know if I am registered or not. No indication. “

Keahey said he thought he might have signed up on a subsequent attempt shortly before 10 a.m., “but in the confusion, I didn’t note the date I ultimately chose that was accepted.” – a problem that Kious also encountered. Keahey hopes the county health department sends out email reminders.

• “Terrible planning for this. They should have known that thousands of people would like to sign up for the vaccine, but the form doesn’t work and the phone number just gives a busy signal.

• “I am elderly and have severe chronic heart disease. Do better.”

• “Just praying that it will work.”

• “It’s a complete mess. I had hoped Salt Lake County would have been better prepared.

Vaccine planning appeared to be generally chaotic statewide as of Wednesday morning. The Weber-Morgan Health Department website would not open at all.

The Bear River Department of Health website reported that its first clinic for patients aged 70 and over is Jan. 14 – ahead of the state-announced Jan. 18 start date – but the clinic was full. and the department did not plan to announce more vaccination. dates on Wednesday.

The Utah County website said it would start scheduling vaccinations for patients aged 70 and up until 6 p.m. on Wednesday – but underneath that was a link to one more vaccination clinic 70-year-old already underway on Wednesday, which was also full.

The Central Utah Department of Health posted a link to register for a vaccine, but it requires a registration code to continue, and no registration code was immediately visible on the website.

The Southeastern Utah Department of Health posted a link to a vaccine planner, who said all appointments were filled by Wednesday morning.

The Tooele County and Tri-County area health departments in northeastern Utah both directed website users to the state’s general vaccine information page, which does not allow patients to schedule vaccines. The San Juan County Department of Health website, listed by Google as having an expired safety certificate, is also linked to the state’s website.

It was only in Wasatch County, which scheduled appointments by phone, and Summit County, which planned by email, that attempts to schedule the vaccine did not come to a standstill.

La Tribune will update this developing story.