More than 24,000 COVID-19 vaccine appointments booked for kids in Ottawa within hours of portal opening

OTTAWA -

After months of waiting, parents were able to book COVID-19 shots for kids aged five to 11 on Tuesday.

According to Ottawa Public Health, there were 60,000 appointments available in the capital. Many parents got their appointments about an hour earlier than expected – the provincial booking portal opened before 8 a.m.

By 2 p.m., OPH said more than 24,000 appointments had already been booked.

• RELATED: What you need to know to book a COVID-19 vaccine for your 5 to 11-year-old in Ottawa

Ann Marcil was booking for her 10-year-old son Daniel. “Early this morning around 7 o’clock I got a text from a friend who said, ‘it’s open!’ so I went right away to the computer and was successful, so (my son) is going to have his first vaccine on Sunday!”

“I took the first one I saw, when you put in your location with your postal code it just naturally picks what is closest to you, which is what I preferred, and the date was Sunday. I thought I don’t think I’ll get much better than that!”

Marcil says this is an important step to a return to normal activities for Daniel. “I am encouraged. It is a big deal for him because he has wanted to do activities outside of school, but we didn’t feel comfortable doing that until he was vaccinated. With this we will be able to move forward and start thinking about swimming lessons and karate in the new year, so that is exciting for him.”

Christina Chenard logged on 7:15 a.m. Tuesday but ran into an issue. “There was a problem with my daughter's health card, the system didn’t like it, and then it said it logged me out.”

Chenard turned to the phone line. “I called the 1-800 number, I got connected in under five minutes, which was impressive for right after 8 o’clock, and I got her booked as I was walking her and my younger son to school!”

Chenard says it will be a challenge for her eight-year-old daughter Annika to not feel scared of getting a needle, but they have had conversations as a family. “We had that conversation right before she got her flu shot.”

“We talked about how (we) got it… she understands that this means when she goes to ski lessons this winter, she has that extra layer of protection, I may need to bring a piece of chocolate with me, as a bribe for afterwards!”