York Region began allowing vaccination appointments to be booked online for residents aged 80 and over on Monday morning, but within hours all appointments were fully booked.
Posted Mar 02, 2021, 05:26AM EST
York Region began allowing vaccination appointments to be booked online for residents aged 80 and over on Monday morning, but within hours all appointments were fully booked.
WATCH: https://toronto.citynews.ca/2021/03/01/online-vaccination-appointments-fully-booked-within-hours-york-region/
The online bookings opened at 8:00 a.m., but just after 11 a.m. the region tweeted that no more spots were currently available.
“Future appointments will be available once capacity allows and vaccine supply is available,” York Region tweeted.
Due to high demand, appointments for residents 80+ are now full at available clinics. Future appointments will be available once capacity allows and vaccine supply is available. Please check back often as announcements are made on various channels. Thank you for your patience. pic.twitter.com/A1tWbNYH0G
— York Region (@YorkRegionGovt) March 1, 2021
“Within the first two hours, approximately 20,000 appointments were booked across the five York Region locations,” Patrick Casey, Director of Corporate Communications for the region explained.
“Residents will be notified when future appointments are available through multiple communication channels, including on york.ca, social media and our media and community partners,” Casey added.
“At this time residents are urged to remain patient and will be notified as more appointment bookings become available.”
Earlier, York Region said high traffic was causing its online booking portal to operate “slower than usual.”
Breakfast Television’s Melanie Ng was unable to connect to the site at all, after it appeared to crash under heavy traffic.
Looks like York Region’s web site is crashing as registration opens up for Covid-19 vaccinations for those 80+
@BTtoronto @citynews pic.twitter.com/yy2mnLRNIC— Melanie Ng (@CityMelanie) March 1, 2021
York’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. Karim Kurji, said that delays were inevitable as people rushed to book appointments.
“We do expect that there will be quite a demand, particularly on the initial day. We hope that you won’t have to wait [more than] a few days in the meantime,” said Kurji.
In a news release, Monday evening, York region health said they are currently supplied with the Pfizer vaccine.
“York Region Public Health and our three hospital partners have been confirmed to receive 9,360 doses of Pfizer vaccine each week for the next two weeks; each of the four partners will share doses equally; we do not have confirmation on delivery of either Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccine at this time,” they said.
