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Raleigh, North Carolina – A coronavirus vaccination registration website that Wake County launched on Tuesday morning quickly crashed under the crush of people trying to access it.
The website and a registration hotline opened at 8:30 a.m. to allow people 65 years of age or older to put on a waiting list for vaccinations. A few minutes later, people started reporting issues to WRAL News.
One person said the phone number was broadcasting a message that the line was disconnected and dozens more couldn’t load the web tool.
Coronavirus Vaccinations in North Carolina
Wake County spokeswoman Stacy Beard said hundreds of thousands of people visited the website within seconds of each other, causing it to crash.
“The volume is immense,” Beard said.
Bill Greeves, the county’s chief information and innovation officer, apologized for the difficult rollout at a Tuesday afternoon meeting of the Wake County Council of Commissioners. To handle the call volume, he said, the county is expanding the registration hotline from 100 phones to 1,000.
Currently, any caller over 100 receives a busy signal. By expanding to 1,000 phone lines, people will be put on hold until an agent can access them, Greeves said. The county is adding agents to answer the phone, but it could take several days, he said.
“It’s a problem of supply and demand,” said Council of Commissioners chairman Matt Calabria, noting that the county, like most places in the country, just doesn’t have enough vaccines to circulate. .
Despite the problems, the county had registered 23,000 people by mid-afternoon, including hundreds who are not yet eligible for vaccinations according to state guidelines, officials said.
Some people simply bypassed the system – and the waiting list – and showed up to the Wake County Health Department offices, where they immediately received their injection without an appointment.
“We were trying to access the website – many websites – trying to get the vaccine, and my daughter called and said they were trying to get it here. [and] to go and try because a friend of his had been vaccinated, “said Chris Anderson, who was vaccinated with her husband, Tom.” This is how we ended up here. I fell right away and we were lucky to be successful. “
“It was wonderful. It was very easy, ”said Virginia Michaud, who was vaccinated with her husband, Richard. “They took our names, they put us on the line and we got our picture. We were there maybe 15 minutes, maybe 20 minutes, and it was fabulous.”
Other vaccination options are available for residents who cannot access the Wake County system:
- UNC Health has 17 clinics open in the region
- Duke Health also has a number of open sites and may put people on a waitlist.
Wake County officials created the waiting list system so people don’t have to queue or queue in vehicles to get vaccinated. Instead, once people get on the waiting list, they’ll get a call when an appointment for a vaccine becomes available.
“We have done our best to create a system that will be user-friendly and transparent,” Calabria said.
If you are eligible for a vaccine, you can join the waitlist by calling 919-250-1515 or visiting wakegov.com/vaccine.
Callers will be asked about eligibility, if they have a primary care physician, and their name, phone number and email address. They will then be added to the waiting list.
“It’s not a first come, first served system. We prioritize those who need it most. If you’re 75 and over, we put you first. We also prioritize those who need it most. were in the [Phase] 1A qualifying, ”Calabria said.
Phase 1A included healthcare workers treating patients with COVID-19 and residents and staff of long-term care facilities. North Carolina recently reworked its immunization priority list and removed the Phase 1A designation.
As the county receives doses, those on the waitlist will be notified by phone, email or text, and then they will have the option to make an appointment, either by phone or online.
According to the county’s website, the wait could be “from several weeks to several months before being contacted for an appointment.”
“We worked with a private company to help us absorb a lot of the call traffic,” Calabria said. “We’re doing our best to manage the capacity through these public-private partnerships to manage call traffic. We will see [Tuesday] how things are going, but we are optimistic and prepared as we can be. “
Officials hope to avoid problems reported at vaccination sites in other counties.
“We want to avoid what we have seen in other places with long queues around buildings and created risks, especially for the elderly,” he said.
Calabria said now was not the time to sign up for residents of Wake County who were not in the two categories eligible for the wait list. Officials said they already anticipate high call volume and online applications.
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